


Heat in the making

by Costumebleh



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Other, Slow Build, a bit of sweet smut at the end, so much fluff you wouldn't believe it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 09:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5285087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costumebleh/pseuds/Costumebleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a cold winter evening you needed a warm hand, gentle Grillby showed up and gave you a chance you were not really sure that you deserved. It didn’t really help that he was handsome, sweet, hot… Okay you had a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions, Salvation, Colds and Slumber

You felt the sting of the freezing breeze underneath your coat as you sat still on the ground in the alley. The concrete beneath your gloves was covered in a slight layer of ice and snow. You disliked winter. No, that wasn’t completely correct. You didn’t usually dislike winter. It had its fair share of celebrations, and the scenery created by the falling snow was actually rather soothing. You just disliked this particular winter.

The wind was biting your cheeks and your hands felt numb. You had just recently been kicked out of your cheap apartment without much of a warning from the landowner, and consequently you had to pack your meagre belongings in your duffel bag and leave within twelve hours, or she would throw you out herself.

You looked down sadly at the duffel bag placed under your elbow. A slight gust of wind ruffled your hair as you thought of your predicament. You had no savings large enough to pay for a new housing right away, so for the last couple of weeks you had been camping out in the nearby park or in random doorways. To make matters worse, you had been fired from your previous job a week before the landowner had decided she didn’t like your face. Since then you had been attempting to search for a new means of livelihood, while also trying to look for another place to stay that wouldn’t mind you starting out a bit slow with the payments. Hah, that kind of thinking was daydreaming though, and you knew it. You scowled at yourself.

Right now, you knew that you were in kind of a tight spot. Since the snow had fallen recently the park would be dangerous to sleep in, because the temperature would drop way too fast without the heat from any surrounding buildings. So for tonight you had decided to stay in this alley between something that looked like a bar and an apartment building. Though if you could have chosen, you would have gone to one of the nearby shelters to spend the night, if you didn’t already know that your belongings would be gone before you even fell asleep.

You tucked your gloved hands into your armpits as another strong wind blew through the alley. It felt like the cold air was seeping through every little hole in your clothes and into your skin. It was freezing. You knew that sleeping here was slightly dangerous, since the weather was this bad, but you couldn’t stay awake all night either. You just hoped that you wouldn’t catch your death during the night as you breathed small clouds of warm air into your palms and curled together to make yourself smaller and save heat. Tucking your legs up and leaning against your bag, you closed your eyes – just for a moment.

Your dreams were weird. They were like some kind of strange nightmare, but they weren’t really scaring you. They seemed to switch between successions of different scenes. At first you were standing in a dark room with a clutter of bones around you and two presences staring at you with glowing eyes. At the end of their gaze you felt heavy – almost like you couldn’t move. Then the next moment, you were standing alone in an endless field covered in yellow flowers. You blinked once, and then you felt something large looming above you. Your body was suddenly bound by spider threads, and you could hear a quiet laugh echo around you. The next you knew, you found yourself sitting at a bar table, a blazing inferno in front of your eyes, as you felt your body get hotter and hotter.

It felt like the burning torch of flames in your dreams continued to burn even after you hazily woke up. Despite the snow floating slowly through the air and settling on your skin, you felt like you were _burning_. You supposed you might have caught a nasty cold. Damn.

But despite you realizing this, you still couldn’t get the flames in front of your eyes to disappear, even if you weren’t quite dreaming any longer. You fought to remain fully conscious regardless of the fatigue you could feel settle deep in your bones and the chill making your movements stiff and painful.

That’s when you spotted the shades floating in the middle of the inferno, and your body froze. Your first instinct was to scoot backwards, but as soon as you moved even the slightest, your head felt like it was pierced with pain, and you couldn’t do much more than clutch your head in agony. Shutting your eyes, you tried to make the harsh headache thundering in the back of your head stop.

You could still feel the warmth emanating from the fire monster kneeling in front of you –because yes, at some point your foggy brain had made the connection between floating shades and the other half of the residents in town. It felt comforting compared to the harsh bite of the cold weather, which had stolen what little energy you had left.

With your head still buried between your hands, you suddenly felt a warm palm touch the top of your head. Your tired mind noted that despite the fact that the monster was made of pure fire, the temperature was only slightly warmer than a human’s, and that none of the fire actually burned you.

You guessed that the fire being would perhaps like to ask why you were camping out in such an odd place, or maybe he would try to shoo you – the homeless bum – away from this alley. You raised your suffering head from the grasp of your hands and gazed behind the shades into what you supposed were the eyes of the monster.

They seemed to look you over for a minute, and you got the impression that he (?) widened his eyes slightly when he saw the condition you were in. At the same time, you examined the monster. He was clad in a bartender’s outfit with a white shirt under a black vest, bowtie and pants with matching polished shoes. He looked very much like he should be standing in a late-night bar and not in the ice-covered snow like this.

You felt a stab of pain in your head. Grimacing, you had to move your eyes away from even the softest light he emitted. Instead, you looked to your side at the hand grasping onto your duffle bag while you waited for him to say something.

“Come inside.” You almost jumped as the monster spoke, his deep, musky voice filling the choking silence in the alleyway. It wasn’t an order, but not a question either. He spoke in such a way that he might have just made a comment on the weather – neutral, but gentle.

“I-I shouldn’t,” you murmured looking down. Both your current state as well as the fact that you didn’t know where ‘inside’ even was made you deny the offer.

The monster rose and gestured with a flaming hand behind him at a door you hadn’t noticed before. It seemed to lead into the inside of the bar. It was tempting, but you still felt like he shouldn’t inconvenience himself for your sake, since you were pretty filthy, and you probably wouldn’t be able to pay anything back straightaway in any case.

“It’s alright. I’ll live,” you said to him in an attempt to make him go back inside. “I’ll even move if I’m bothering your place.” Even if you doubted that you would be able to move in your current condition. Despite that thought however, you hoisted your bag onto your shoulder and made a half-hearted attempt at standing up to move away from the alley, but as soon as your body moved, it seemed to scream in agony, and you almost fell. Before your face could make contact with the ground though, a pair of warm hands wrapped themselves around your shoulders and kept you upright. With a blush formed by the mix of embarrassment and exhaustion, you once more looked into that stoic pair of shades.

Somehow you saw worry in a face made of pure fire. As he gestured back towards the door with a flicker of his flames, you felt him silently urge you to accept his proposition once more. You deemed it too hard to deny without actually being really rude to the only individual, who had been nice to you for the first time in a week.

When you opened your mouth to say something a harsh couple of sudden coughs forced you to double over. You couldn’t breathe. Your eyes were overflowing with water and it felt like glass was stuck in your chest. The hands on your shoulders shifted as the monster eased you down into a kneeling position that would be easier on your lungs. He gently heated soothing circles around your back until your coughs had eased into a hard breathing for air and the occasional spasm going down your spine.

“–I’m sorry,” you were finally able to gasp out between breaths.

The monster shook his head slightly and gestured once more towards the open door. This time you didn’t protest, but nodded hesitatingly. When you tried to reach for your bag however, he stopped your arm and grasped onto the straps himself, lifting it over his shoulder.  You didn’t know how he was able to lift your heavy bag with such ease, and you didn’t linger to think about it either. The world was spinning in an uncomfortable way, and after the coughing fit you felt like your chest was on fire.

You tried to stand and make your legs listen to you as a hand was wrapped around your shoulders again. You glanced to your side to see the monster staring worriedly down at you. A weak smile aimed at him was all you could manage. You weren’t sure that it really reassured him, but it was the best you could handle right now without it turning into a grimace.

Finally, your ice cold legs decided to listen, and the two of you slowly wandered the few steps, which would bring you into the bar.

As you entered, you were met by warmth that seeped into your clothes and consequently melted the snow still clinging to your hair. While the room might have been a normal temperature for a bar, the heat came as a shock to your frozen body, and your muscles loosened almost instantly. You stumbled out of his firm grip and slid down the frame of the door onto the floor, your body gone completely limp. You doubted that you’d even be able to stand up again.

Bending your legs, you pushed yourself weakly back towards the wall, so you would be out of the way. Your head still hurt and your body trembled slightly, even as you squeezed your hands in front of your eyes.

You heard quiet footsteps and rustling from the monster walking around you and dumping your bag somewhere in the room. His steps stopped a short distance in front of you, and you could feel the heat emanating from him as he leaned towards you. Without looking up, you mumbled: “…Sorry, I don’t think I can move anymore.”

A reassuring hand stroked your hair. You instantly eased a little. The pins and needles from standing up were still piercing your limbs rhythmically, but the heat helped a great deal to lessen the pain.

“Relax.”

You were about to question him why he would say that, when one arm looped around your back and another went under your knees, gently lifting you up. You squeaked slightly and grasped the fabric of his vest out of surprise, but quickly realized that all he intended to do was to place you on the nearby couch instead of just letting you stay on the floor.

It felt like your whole body was enveloped in a warm blanket. Despite your struggles to stay awake your eyes involuntarily shut, and your consciousness gradually faded away. The last thing you were able to make out was the gentle inferno burning all around you.

Your consciousness was dragged into the sandy dunes of dreamland with strength similar to heavy vines wrapping around your limbs. You felt oddly light and warm as nightmares and dreams alike played out behind your eyelids. Your eyes were darting around and your lungs gasping for breath, as the fever made your mind unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.

Your body felt like it had been dunked into a frozen lake mid-winter. Your muscles were contracting, causing your limbs to spasm. Yet every once in a while, when your consciousness broke through the haze, you felt the gentle touch of somebody putting a washcloth on your forehead, or sometimes you heard murmuring from one or multiple people talking beside you. Once, you thought you were back in your old apartment, before your dulled mind recalled the circumstances you had found yourself in, and you started crying without really knowing why. At that moment, somebody seemed to place their soothing hand on your cheek and use the washcloth to dry the tears away until you calmed down.

It felt like eons later when your tired body finally was in a good enough condition to actually allow you to wake up fully conscious – if thoroughly exhausted. Now you were faced with the difficulty of trying to recall why the ceiling you were looking at was completely unfamiliar to you.

The memories were hazy, but you could piece enough together to figure out that the monster, who brought you in, must have taken care of your sick self. With your body groaning in response, you weakly lifted yourself up to a more vertical position so you could survey the room you were in.

It seemed like you were in somebody's bedroom and not on the couch as you had expected. It looked like you had been out for a long time, because you hadn't even noticed the monster moving you from the couch to this room.

As for the room, it was dimly lighted by a lamp in one of the corners. Because of that, it was noticeable that everything was modestly decorated. Besides the large bed you were currently sitting on, there were only a dresser and a night table visible. The wooden door was left slightly open, letting a small sliver of white light shine in.

You moved to sit on the edge of the bed while wincing slightly, because even the smallest of motion caused your head to almost break into two. After what more seemed like a battle of wills rather than strength, you managed to slip the rest of the way onto your feet, stumbling over towards the door.

Fatigued and gasping for breath, you emerged from the bedroom and wobbled your way into what seemed to be a living room. A medium sized kitchen took up half of the available space, and like the bedroom it was hardly furnished. A dining table seating four was positioned halfway into the kitchen. In the other end of the room a TV stood in a corner with couch and what seemed like a couple of beanbags facing it. The furniture seemed to have been made more for the sake of comfort rather than looks.

The moment you took a few shaky steps into the room someone stirred on the couch. The movement made you jump involuntarily in surprise as you spotted the slightly familiar cone of flames moving to sit upright.

The monster seemed like he had been sleeping on the couch while you had been occupying the bed. Somehow you felt relieved seeing him and stumbled slightly to lean onto the table surface as you pressed the base of your hands to your forehead to quell the headache pounding insistently behind your eyelids. Man you were sick and probably dehydrated too.

“You're awake,” the monster stated as he noticed you and rose from the couch. You didn't know how he knew you were there. It was impossible to tell if he had looked your way, because his shades shielded where his eyes supposedly were, or if he had just heard your heavy steps as you entered the room.

You heard the monster walk around you to grab something out of one of the cupboards and turn on the water. A few minutes passed as he filled a glass up, turned off the tab and walked up to you. A soothing hand placed itself on your burning forehead, and another pressed the rim of the glass to your lips, convincing you to drink the cool liquid. You obeyed and almost choked as your dried throat protested against the sudden intake.

You pushed the glass away as you covered your mouth to cough. It hurt and made your headache worse, and you were pretty sure that you were actually dying from coughing too much. You braced yourself against the table with both hands as the coughs caused spasms to run through your body. You felt unsteady on your legs, bile rising in your throat.

The monster then placed his hand on your back, and you felt it move in soothingly circles around your spine. When you could finally catch enough of your breath to speak, you mumbled out a “thank you”.

As a reply, he placed his other hand on your neck, using his heat to ease out the tensed muscles there. In response, you felt your headache slowly ease up. When you could stand up straight again, he led you to the couch where you could sit down before you had another attack.

As you sat, you couldn't help but ask: “How long have I been out?”

The monster shook his head and presented four fingers. Four days?! You didn’t think it could have been that long. The cold must have been worse than you thought! Moreover, you had been under his care the entire time. You hurriedly tried to stand up with the intention of leaving.

“I'm so sorry! You've had to–,” but your words were cut off as he grasped your hand, holding you still.

“...I didn't mind.”

That reply left you gaping like a fish at him. Didn't mind? He didn't mind having to take care of a complete stranger for four days straight? And you were a human no less. Monsters had faced quite a lot of high hurdles after re-emerging from the underground five years back, and the humans discrimination hadn't made those any easier to get over.

“I-I'm sorry though. It couldn't have been easy...” You stuttered an apology as you felt him squeeze your hand reassuringly.

You sat back down and turned to look at him. “Do you want to hear why I ended up in that alley?” You were still tired, but you didn't want to impose even more than you already had. So if he wanted the whole sob story right now, you didn't mind telling him. You felt like you could trust him.

He squeezed your hand and nodded in reply. Taking a deep breath, you started explaining the circumstances to which had led you to almost pass out sick in that alley; the shitty coincidence of both you having been fired by your boss and the landowner deciding to kick you out. How you couldn't afford a ticket back to your parent's place, because you then wouldn’t be able to pay for the housing you needed.

The tale was actually rather short, and when you were done, you asked where your bag had gone. The monster pointed to the side, back towards the bedroom, and you saw it lying up against the wall beside the door. With a surge of relief, you collapsed completely into the couch.

Then it hit you. “This is kind of weird to ask about now, but what is your name?” Grinning sheepishly, you felt your cheeks heat up slightly because of your forgetfulness. 

“...Grillby.”

He let go of your hand and rubbed what would been the top of his ‘hair’. The motion was similar to fixing one’s bedhead – like he was trying to smooth it down a little. You didn't really get the specifics of elemental monster's anatomy, but you guessed that even fire beings could wake up with a bad hair day.

You smiled as you said: “Nice to meet you Grillby, even though it’s a bit late.” Your smile widened into a grin as you saw him rub his neck awkwardly in response.

He gave you the impression of being a cool kind of guy (no pun intended), but apparently catching him half asleep broke the cool exterior. That and maybe the detail that he was not wearing the bartender uniform at home, but a pair of sweatpants and a big, plain shirt. He seemed more... ‘Human’ would be the wrong word to use, but ‘casual’ might explain it too.

You abruptly realized you were pretty much ogling him with your stare. You blushed and looked away quickly. Now that the tension from reliving your story was gone, you felt utterly exhausted. Not in the sleepy way though, since your body had been down for the count for four days.

Your eyes glowed faintly as you got an idea. “Hey Grillby?” He turned his head towards you. “I’ll take the couch tonight, since I'm not really going to sleep much anyway. You should go and catch some proper z's in your own bed.” He was going to shake his head when you put your hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. “I'll be fine. I just don't really feel tired after sleeping so much.”

He gave in after that – if reluctantly. However, he did not leave right away. He sat with you for a while longer before surrendering to the exhaustion of being up at an unbelievably early hour in the morning. You felt the warmth of his hand on top of your head as he walked behind the couch before disappearing into his room.

After that, you just sat thoughtfully on the couch, thinking about what you would do now with your limited options. You did not stay up for much more than an hour however, because, ultimately, the fever and fatigue caught up with you. You rolled yourself up in the blanket that Grillby had been using earlier and closed your eyes.

The next time you woke up, you felt a gentle shake on your shoulder as Grillby roused you. He had a new glass of water in his hand, and it smelled like he'd been cooking something. You still felt off as you slowly sat up with a bit of support from Grillby.

You blinked groggily. The cold hadn’t disappeared. The headache was gone though, which was a nice improvement compared to earlier. Your hands were shaking, but you managed to hold the glass, lifting it to your lips and slowly drink the cool water. You swallowed the painkillers you were handed with the remaining water and gave him back the glass. He placed it somewhere outside your hazy line of sight and put one of his hands on your forehead, vaporizing a bit of the sweat that had gathered there.

“....” It was maybe a bit weird for you to think this, but you thought you could see his facial features change into something filled with worry. It was a silly thought, because you knew a face made of flames couldn’t possibly be read like that.

“…You’re still warm…” Huh? Did he say something? His hand felt nice, pleasantly warm and soft on your head. You leant into the touch and closed your eyes. You could see him shift slightly behind your eyelids, since the light he emitted moved around. His other hand ran through some of your sweaty strands of hair, and it felt so comfortable you almost started to hum, but you quickly stopped yourself, thinking that it would probably weird him out.

You sat there for a while and just enjoyed his warm touches in your dizzy state. All of a sudden though, you felt his hands move away, and you opened your eyes. He stood up, and you noticed he was now wearing the same outfit as yesterday’s evening. The sharp shirt covered by the black vest and black pants suited him nicely. Ah, he was probably going to work and wanted to check up on you before he left.

You smiled up at him. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll fall asleep again after you leave.” He did not seem entirely convinced, but continued getting ready in any case. Leaning over the back of the couch you absentmindedly stared at him as he slipped on a pair of gloves and tied a bowtie around his neck.

Before he left, he pointed to the kitchen, where a plate of simple breakfast stood on the counter. He had probably made it for you to eat. You nodded, indicating that you would eat it after he left, and true to your intentions, you ate it slowly while trying to keep yourself awake. Then you fell asleep as soon as you had found a comfortable way to lie again.

You woke up to the gentle closing of a door and felt more awake than you’d felt in ages. That was hopefully because the cold was diminishing a little, or maybe it was just the painkillers Grillby gave you earlier. Speaking of the monster – he stood in the doorway, slipping off the vest and bowtie and draping them over his arm before walking over to you.

Since you were still on the couch, you had to tilt your head backwards to even look at his face. “You’re already back?” you asked him bewildered. It felt like no time had passed at all, but you couldn’t be sure, given that your sense of time still felt incorrect. He nodded mildly and sat down by your feet. His flames were flickering slowly, and his shoulders slouched slightly.

“You look tired.”  You sat up straighter and leaned closer to him as you spoke. He shrugged at your comment and ran a hand through the flames on top of his head, smoothing them down a little. You worriedly put your hand over his. “Are you alright?” you asked concerned.

He turned to look at you. You felt him stare at you for a few moments before he answered: “...You can stay here.”

What.

“What?”

He almost seemed nervous as he weaved your fingers together. You stared at your intertwined hands while the gears in your head turned at the highest speed possible in your half-asleep state. Did he mean that you could stay here until you recovered from your cold? No wait, that wasn’t the impression you got from his words. Maybe he meant that you could stay with him as long as you’d like. That was certainly what it sounded like to you.

You raised your gaze and sought his eyes out – or at least where they should have been behind the glasses. He squeezed your hand gently.

“O-oh, alright,” you stuttered. It felt like your heart was running double-time, and you were sure that your face was as red as a tomato, but that was surely the fever’s fault. You broke your eyes away from his gaze as you continued in a quiet voice: “…I would like that.”

You didn’t know how, but you were sure that you somehow saw a warmer light emitting from him. Even as you looked away from him, you could feel the happiness radiating off him.

He had permitted you to stay. You felt tears gather in the edges of your eyes, and you couldn’t stop a happy sob from escaping your throat as a big dumb smile spread of your face. You felt Grillby’s free hand brush the tears away, evaporating them simultaneously, but you couldn’t reassure him that you were alright, because a huge lump of happiness was closing your throat up.

You had a house to return to.

You weren’t alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass mod: "Hey everybody! Thanks for dropping by to read this multichaptered fic about you falling for the hottest guy in the entire game, I hope you guys enjoyed this totally cliche scenario!"
> 
> Alice mod: "Hey, why do beta readers get so many colds? – They work with drafts all the time! But in all seriousness, I hope you guys liked it!"
> 
> Ass mod: "... ANYWAY leave a comment, we would really appreciate it and be ready to tune in for the next chapter"


	2. Friends, Customers, Water and Slumber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With plenty of rest, you recovered from your sickness and finally managed to coax Grillby into letting you help out at the bar. It was an interesting experience, even if there was the hazard of a certain skeleton throwing around jokes that hit a bit too close to home. Your cheerful adventure, however, came to an abrupt halt when a certain incident happened.

A few days later, you had almost completely recovered, but a silent argument had been going on with Grillby about your sleeping arrangements. When you had accepted his offer of staying, you thought you would only be sleeping on the couch. However, Grillby seemed to have a different idea. The first night he was already asleep on the couch before you could even register his intentions. After that, it was a silent war about who could be the politest between the two of you. Consequently, you both tried to fake sleep in the living room until the other person gave up and went to sleep in the bed.

Up until now, you were losing badly.

In the few days you had been staying with the fire monster, you learned a few things about your host.

First of all, while he didn’t speak much and despite the missing facial features, he was very easy to read. You always seemed to know what he wanted to convey without him expressing it verbally.

Secondly, he seemed like he hadn’t lived with anyone else before, as he only had the barest of necessities when it came to food and the other small things you yourself didn’t think much of. The first couple of days, the only food you got were junk food and instant meals.

Lastly, you didn’t know if he was the touchy-feely type of person, or if it was just the fact that he hadn’t ever really been close to anybody before. In any case, he seemed to like sitting close to you when you were watching TV, and he had a habit of running his fingers through your hair, if you felt horrible and needed comfort. You didn’t mind it at all. On the contrary, you actually found his small touches relaxing. You hadn’t truly been this close to somebody since you found yourself kicked out of your apartment.  

Okay, you didn’t know if the last thing was something he did normally – maybe you were an exception. Or maybe, you just wanted it to feel that way. Either way, you sometimes returned the touches by squeezing his shoulder or gently stroking the top of his head, feeling the flames play between your fingers. It was with small things like that you showed your gratitude.

You had no idea what this all meant, and you weren’t really in any rush to figure it out either.

Today you felt well enough to go to work with him. He protested against it in the beginning, but gave in after you countered by saying that it would actually be unhealthy for a human to stay still for much longer. He would only to let you stay at the bar though. You obeyed, even though you wanted to go grocery shopping for healthier food. You just had to wait a few days to regain all of your strength, and then you could sneak out to buy it while Grillby worked.

However, you decided to compromise for today, since you finally could see his bar. It did not surprise you that he was the owner, as he seemed quite capable of taking care of a one.

When you followed him out, you discovered that Grillby resided in the apartment complex across from the bar. A gently lit diner met you, when you went through its backdoor. You hadn’t prepared yourself for the fact that it soon would be filled to the brim with monsters though.

You were surprised just how many monsters came practically immediately, when he opened the bar. It was early in the morning as well. They must really have been fond of it. Seemingly, they were all regulars and greeted Grillby with enthusiasm. You hid just slightly behind him, feeling nervous about the larger monsters peeking curiously at you.

You almost jumped, when you felt his hand grasp yours and lead you forward slowly. He nodded at one of the biggest monsters in the room. It was completely clad in armor and seemed to flirt shyly with a monster just as big and with a similar looking suit of armor on. With a tug of your hand he guided you to sit on one of the barstools close by. After giving you a small encouraging pat he turned around to go behind the bar and serve the customers.

Although it was comforting to have him this close, you still felt like you were sitting on pins and needles as almost everyone fell silent after the display. You didn’t look, but knew with certainty that they were staring at you; you could hear them whispering to each other.

You didn’t like it. You felt sick again. You kept your eyes on your hands, which rested on the table surface, as you tried to tune out the unsettling looks.

“you know kid, they don’t bite!”

You spun around on the barstool so quickly that you would have fallen off if you hadn’t gripped the tabletop for balance. With a squeak of surprise you straightened to look into an empty pair of eye sockets. Despite you not hearing it coming near, the monster was right in front of you. He (at some point, you would make sure to ask every monster you met about their pronouns) took a step back out of your personal space, and you saw that the speaker was actually a skeleton. Moreover, his eyes weren’t as empty as you had thought at first. A small light were visible in each socket, which looked suspiciously like pupils.

The skeleton was dressed in a large blue jacket and black shorts, and when you looked down you saw slippers on his feet. He gave you a mischievous grin, as you looked into his eyes after studying his appearance.

“well, the dogs might, but only if you try to steal their food.” It seemed like he was giving you a similar once-over to the one you had just done.

“you mind moving one seat to the side? me and my pal like to sit together when we come here.”

You broke out of the confused trance you’d been in and replied with a weak “S-sure.”

Was it you or did his smile just widen a bit? Well, if you really could read emotions in literal flames, then you could probably also guess any changes in a face made of calcium. Though, you wouldn’t actually count on it. You hastily switched seats to make space for him and whoever was with him. That was when you saw the kid.

You were pretty sure that you had seen them before, but you couldn’t put your finger on where exactly. They appeared small and cute though with their brown fuzzy hair and small eyes. You smiled at them, feeling a bit calmer at the implication that a kid like this could go in here without any problems. They beamed back towards you and signed something with their hands. Sadly, you didn’t know much about sign language, so you looked towards her boney (hah) friend for help.

He seemed to understand your silent cry for help. “they’re saying: ‘Hello, my name is Frisk’, and that reminds me that i didn’t tell you my name either.” He reached a hand out. “the name’s sans.”

As you politely shook his hand a large farting sound emerged from between your hands. Your face turned five shades of deep red, and you stared accusingly at Sans. He smirked at you, the big prankster. Frisk shook their head disapprovingly at the skeleton.

You shot the nastiest look you could muster at him. “You didn’t.”

He let go of your hand, shrugged and said, “looks like i just did. you’ve got to admit that it was pretty _humerus_.”

Oh god, was that a skeleton pun? Judging by his sly smile, it probably was, and you genuinely dreaded what he might say next.

You felt like your fears were reasonable too, seeing that he continued as he leaned over.

“say, when does a skeleton laugh?”

You groaned resignedly into your hands.

“when you tickle his _funny bone_.”

And your demise continued.

You heard Grillby place something in front of you. Looking down, you saw a glass of water. As you looked back up at him, you tried to express your gratitude for the intervention with your eyes. He nodded and turned around to find something from the shelves behind him. Subsequently, he placed something in front of Sans as he walked to the other end of the bar – presumably to listen to the customers sitting there.

“hey, kid.”

You didn’t realize that you had been staring at Grillby until Sans’s voice snapped you back to reality. “What?” You replied, turning to look at him. Taking a sip of his bottle, he looked at you with a raised eyebrow (you had no idea how he managed that).

“you know grillby? i know i haven’t seen you here before.”

You drank a bit of water from the glass, as you thought about how to best describe your relationship. “I-uh... I’m kind of staying with him for a while.”

He spluttered ketchup everywhere at your confession. You gaped at him. Why he was spitting ketchup was beyond your understanding. Then it hit you. Ah, that must have been what Grillby put in front of him earlier. Coughing and hitting himself on his chest, Sans managed to spit out the remaining ketchup and turned to look at you. He raised his eyebrows mischievously and surprised you into motionlessness by saying something you didn’t see coming at all. 

“so that’s why you were staring at his hot buns.”

This time, it was your turn to spit and cough. Your cheeks were _burning_.

Urgh, this was awkward.

As soon as he heard you cough Grillby rushed over to place a hand on your shoulder, silently asking you if you felt sick again. Oh my god, he wasn’t even remotely helping the situation.

You flailed your hand at him in a weak attempt to reassure him that nothing was wrong, that the reason you had started coughing again had nothing to do with being sick, and would he _PLEASE_ just go do his thing, so that he didn’t make the misunderstanding worse than it already was.

Silently, you bemoaned the fact that your silent communication thing only seemed to go one way, seeing that Grillby placed his hand under your chin to make you look at him. You heard a snort of some kind behind you, and your face turned about six shades redder than it was before, as you stared into the inferno of your housemate. You tried to hold down the coughs working their way up your throat, as he looked intensely at you for a few moments.

You swore that the skeleton beside you now permanently was added to your hit list.

Then, you heard it.

“wow grillby, seems like both of you have a fiery _passion_ for each other.” Scratch that. He was undeniably priority number one now.

Grillby let go of your chin and shot his apparently old friend a tired glance over your shoulder.

“well, no need to get all fired up about it.”

Resignedly, you decided the bottom of your glass was infinitely more interesting than whatever pun Sans might throw your way if you looked at him again. Grillby just seemed to shake his head and pat your shoulder before going back behind the counter. You tried not to call further attention to yourself by slowly sipping the water in the dullest manner you could. Wow, this was delicious. It had the most interesting texture of nothing you had ever tasted.

With this acting, you _had_ to be the most unexciting person in the room. At least, that was what you thought until you almost choked a second time, as you felt a boney hand poke your side.

“but seriously, what’s the story? i’ve never heard of him living with somebody before.” You cleared your throat slightly before shooting him another – hopefully intimidating – glare. Though, it was probably a rather pathetic attempt, since your face almost certainly still looked beet red, and you just felt like a total mess in general.

“come on kid, throw me a bone here.” He looked slightly less cocky now; slightly being the keyword. You still felt it necessary, however, to pout for a few more moments to show him that his dumb comments had been uncalled for.

Well, telling him couldn’t hurt, and he seemed cool enough. Besides, you had already taken a liking to Frisk, who was listening carefully to your conversation. It was endearing. You smiled at them, even as you replied to Sans’ sorry excuse of a proper question.

“Well, you see,” you started. “A few days ago, Grillby saved me out of a really tight spot and took care of me afterwards. The other day, he then offered to let me stay with him until I’m able to find another place.” You drew a circle around the rim of your glass, as you thought about your own circumstances. You really were lucky that Grillby found you when he did.

You looked towards Sans when you didn’t hear a reply. Then you blinked startled. Wasn’t… Wasn’t his smile wider than before?

“well, looks like even grillby can get a little hotheaded.”

However, you ignored him completely when somebody suddenly burst in through the front door.

“SANS! SO THIS IS WHERE YOU WENT WITH FRISK.”

Sans spun around on his chair upon hearing the exclamation. You followed his line of sight to a skeleton clad in something that reminded you of a Halloween costume. This skeleton was taller than Sans and seemed to radiate vigor and energy as he strode into the bar.

“oh, hey papyrus,” Sans answered lazily.

“DON’T YOU ‘OH HEY’ ME, BROTHER!” The tall skeleton, Papyrus, exclaimed. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BRING FRISK STRAIGHT HOME AFTER SCHOOL TO TASTE MY NEW SPAGHETTI RECIPE.”

“come on paps. i just needed to share some _spare_ _ribs_ with frisk.” Papyrus groaned at the bad pun. “i thought you would see right through me.”

“I DO NEITHER APPRECIATE YOU BEING LATE NOR YOUR HORRID PUNS, SANS.” He grabbed frisk’s hand and began leading them outside. “AND BOTH OF YOU ARE COMING HOME WITH ME RIGHT THIS INSTANT TO TASTE TEST.” Shrugging his shoulders, Sans shot a quick “see ya later kid” your way as he followed Papyrus and Frisk out.

They left just as quickly as they had come. You didn’t even manage to respond before they were out of the door, but it certainly felt like it wouldn’t be the last time you saw that trio.

Your assumption was right. Only a few days later, you managed to convince Grillby that letting you help out at the bar on a regular basis was a good idea, and now you both saw and chatted with the skeleton brothers and the monster ambassador quite frequently. Speaking of – you had abruptly remembered why you recognized Frisk the second time you talked to them. Then you tripped and almost landed on your face at the revelation.

You had come a long way since then though. You were even able to chat to some of the other bar patrons after a while. However, some of the bigger ones still intimidated you.

When you weren’t chatting or preventing Sans from stealing all of the ketchup bottles, you tidied the bar up. Granted, Grillby only allowed you to wash the dishes, when they piled up, or mop the floor, when it was needed. Every time you had tried to do something else – like cooking healthier food – he put that gentle hand on your shoulder and shook his head. It was his way of telling you that he didn’t need your help with that.

He was really stubborn when it came to the kitchen – both at the bar and at home. He wasn’t allowing you to cook any kind of dinner. You weren’t even permitted to the simplest of things like frying an egg, but it didn’t bother you too much, since you weren’t actually that great at cooking, and he probably had a good reason to ban you from the stove.

One day a few weeks later, you found out why.

You had been cleaning up after an incident one of the customers had caused; they were a curious thing – more tentacles than you could count and with a bubbly personality. Flailing the many limbs, they apologized as Grillby went back to the bar area to make another drink for them.

You were just about to tell the overexcited monster that they should be more careful with their arms, when one of them accidentally hit you on the shoulder, making you stumble and fall backwards towards the stove behind you. Your eyes widened in shock as you braced yourself with your arm at the last minute. The next you knew, you were making contact with the magical fire burning intensely in the stove.

You cried out in pain. That _HURT_!

Luckily, you were able to twist yourself around in such a way that only your lower arm was burnt. Nevertheless, the pain was _unbearable_. You now understood why Grillby had been so concerned and precautious.

Speaking of Grillby – at your outcry he had seemingly turned around in alarm just to see you slump down in front of the stove, grasping your arm as tears pressed at the corner of your eyes. The next thing you knew, he was kneeling in front of you demanding: “Show me.”

Hesitantly, you did as he said. The skin of your lower arm was gone. A slightly bleeding, nasty looking red and black burn covered the entirety of the area instead. You shut your jaw tightly together to hinder another cry from escaping. This was bad. You couldn’t think clearly because of the pain.

The next moment, you felt a pull on your upper arms as Grillby made you stand by the sink and turned the cold water on while holding you still. Dazedly, you saw it splash down on your arm. The coolness numbed the pain, but the change in temperature made you whimper.

Suddenly, you heard an outcry from behind. “oi kid! get his arms away from the water!”. You looked down confusedly until you abruptly realized that besides from the sound of water running, you could also hear a small hissing sound. You watched horrified as steam slowly drifted upwards.

Shocked, you gasped as you saw Grillby’s arms getting injured from being under the running water. Small blotches of coal began forming up his arms as you watched. With an astonishingly strong force, you pushed him away with your damaged arm. A look of surprise and hurt crossed his face at your actions. At the same time, a hiss escaped your throat as you saw how badly hurt he was. Why did he keep your arm under the water for so long? It must have hurt him terribly!

You hesitantly tried to reach your non-injured arm out towards him. “Grillby-”

“Stay. Under. The. Water.” He took a step back and leaned against the wall, hugging himself as his face scrunched up in pain. When you didn’t obey, he looked at you with begging eyes.

“better do it kid. this looks bad for the both of you.” Without you noticing, Sans had appeared beside Grillby and grabbed onto his shirt.

“sorry about this grillby.” With a quick motion, he ripped both of Grillby’s soaked sleeves off, which left his hands and arms exposed. The slight marks of coal were now completely visible. The sight made you snap back, and you felt the cool air on your wound. You quickly turned back to plunge your arm underneath the running water while making sure not to look at Grillby’s pitiful form.

This was your fault.

You felt nauseous.

It was surprisingly Sans, who interrupted your inner self-blaming monolog. "hey kid. i think that’s enough of that for now. you think you can look after grillby while i make a phone call?"

You choked back a sob and nodded slowly. As of now, you just hoped you could look at Grillby without crying. 

Sans patted your shoulder and exited through the main door. A look around the bar showed the rest of the patrons looking worriedly at the two of you. You took a steadying breath and firmly nodded your head at RG 01. He seemed to get the hint and started shooing the others out. The multi-armed monster apologized profusely while exiting.

When everyone was gone you turned your attention back to Grillby. You tentatively kneeled by him, even as you felt a strange sense of deja-vu when you mirrored what he had done earlier. You lifted your good hand to his face, placing it on his cheek. In response, he turned his face to look at you to ask silently if you were all right. You managed a weak smile while replying that it could have been worse.

You felt only pleasant warmth when you ran your fingers across his cheek and down to his neck. You let your hand rest there for a moment before your fingers gently floated down to his arms, where even just ghosting them along one of the bruises made his face distort in pain. You quickly pulled your hand to yourself again and questioned: "Do you want to go rest in the breakroom until Sans comes back?"

You didn’t know if you could support him enough with the throbbing burn on your arm, but surely he couldn’t go on his own. You had barely even had time to begin weighing your options when Sans appeared beside you, making you flinch in surprise.

"you’ve got a good idea there, kid." He reached a hand out to help Grillby up and placed his arm around Grillby’s hips, so he could lean on him despite the size difference. It looked so comical that you would have laughed if the mood wasn’t so tense. Sans slowly took a few steps towards the backroom with Grillby hanging heavily on him, since he was barely able to stand.

You meekly followed after them. The pain, which had lessened under the water, was starting to return to your arm. When you reached the backroom, you had to bite your lip firmly to prevent yourself from whimpering. You flinched when a boney hand placed itself on your shoulder.

“i’ve placed grillby on the couch for now, but i have to go for a few to get my friend. she can take a look at both of you.” With that, he vanished. You didn’t know how he did it, but you certainly weren’t in any state to think about it either.

You stumbled towards the couch. While slowly sliding down to the floor beside Grillby, you clutch your arm with a tense grip to your side. Most of the adrenaline had run out by now, which left you tired and hurting. You were pretty sure you couldn’t move anymore, since it had taken all you had to just follow Grillby.

Minutes gradually ticked by. You concentrated on nothing more than merely breathing. Then, you felt the gentle touch of Grillby’s hand stroking your head reassuringly. The thing you wanted to do the most right now was to jump up and hug him as you cried and complained about him not moving away from the water as he should have, but you didn’t. You just kept quiet beside him and allowed his small touches to distract you from the pain. However, Sans entered through the backdoor with another monster, which looked like a large reptile, shortly after. She was introduced as ‘Alphys’, and Sans quickly informed her about the details of your situation.

Her eyes widened fearfully, and she reacted quickly after hearing how bad it was. First, she took a look at the burn on your arm, upon which she muttered something about third degree burns, before inspecting Grillby. Her gaze hardened instantly. She quickly gave Sans several instructions before moving closer to Grillby to take a better look at the wounds on his wrists.

The next thing you felt was Sans applying some kind of oily substance on top of the burn. At the sudden sting you gasped in pain and pressed your eyes shut when tears threatened to spill. He explained that cream would make the wound heal swiftly and wouldn’t leave a scar, but you barely registered it as waves of pain raced through your body at the slightest touch upon the open wound. Of course you wanted it sterilized though, since you didn’t want infections to appear later. You therefore forced your teeth together so you wouldn’t worry Grillby by making any painful sounds.

“you’re doing pretty good, kid,” Sans reassured you. You nodded thankfully at him.

Like lightning your head snapped back towards the couch at the sound of a suppressed groan escaping from Grillby. It appeared Alphys had poked one of the severest wounds, considering that she muttered a quick: “I-I’m sor-sorry, Grillby.”

When Sans finished applying the mixture on the entirety of your wound, he just bandaged it and told you to leave it alone for a while. You allowed yourself to relax a bit by loosening your whole body and leaning your head back onto the couch.

Listening to their talk was almost as comforting as anything else, but that was only until you heard Alphys exclaim: “G-Grillby, you need the f-fire treatment! Otherwise Y-y-you won’t heal p-properly!”

She wrung her hands as Grillby replied with something you couldn’t hear. “Th-the human? W-well…” You heard her sigh resignedly. “F-fine Grillby, but you’ll h-have to keep the heat packs on for se-several days a-after this… It will also hurt a l-lot, since it’s a slower t-treatment method.”

You didn’t hear the rest, because you accidentally bumped your arm against your leg when you shifted your position slightly. Your sight whitened, and you bit your lip so hard you could taste blood.

Sans kneeled beside you, putting a hand on your shoulder. “kid, you might not want to be here for this.”

Fearing that your voice might break if you said something, you just nodded at him and made a halfhearted attempt at standing up. He took your good hand and draped it over his shoulders at the same time as he gave you a shaky smile. “close your eyes for bit, bud. i’ll be using a bit of magic to get us out quickly.”

You obeyed and felt something shift around you. The next time you opened your eyes, you were standing in the living room in Grillby’s apartment. Sans led you to the couch, made you sit down and grabbed a glass of water and a bag of chips for you before announcing that he would go back to help Alphys. With that, he was gone.

You dropped back into the pillows to rest for a while – until you heard the same odd sound of Sans teleporting into the room. Getting up slightly, you eyed the exhausted Grillby, who had collapsed over his friend and was sporting an odd arrangement of pads, where his wounds had been.

“Grillby,” you tiredly called. He raised his head to look at you.

“i’ll just leave the two of you alone for now. don’t worry about the bar. i’ll close it down for tonight.” Sans spoke unenthusiastically and disappeared again.

Now that you really looked at him, then it seemed the wounds was centered around his elbows and upper arms, which was probably because the flames under his sleeves were weaker and had taken the full force of the water. You grimaced and slowly stood up. Being careful with your arm, you shuffled towards to him. He almost couldn’t stand straight, the poor guy.

Without speaking a word, you led Grillby into the bedroom. He followed you meekly, seeing that he probably was too exhausted to do anything but obey. It was first when you stood in front of the bed that he reacted. With widened eyes he seemed to realize that you intended to let him sleep there tonight.

You shot him a tiny smile. “I’ll be alright on the couch for tonight, Grillby.” You tried to reassure him despite knowing that sleeping on the limited space of the couch would hurt, but you also knew that it would have hurt even more for him.

He started to shake his head. It was probably because he could see the thoughts on your face.

You shot him a stubborn glare and muttered: "Your wounds are even worse than mine... Y-you're going to have t-to drag me away from the d-damn couch."

You were tearing up.

That was just great.

Grillby's face softened, and he slowly reached a hand up to wipe a stray tear away from your face. You felt a sudden, intense fear that he could get hurt from touching your tears. He had been hurt from the water earlier after all. You flinched and slapped his hand away before you could think about it, but the moment you recognized what you had done and saw the hurt on Grillby's face you froze as tears spilled visibly down your face, and you sobbed painfully.

"I do-don't want to hurt you anymore," you wept miserably and hated how your voice swayed in the middle of the sentence. As the tears streamed down your face, you looked away.

Then, you feel a warm hand on your cheek. "You won't," his kind voice replied.

You felt his hand cup your face and his thumb rub small circles on your tear-streaked skin. It was true. There was no hiss or steam now like there had been before.

His other hand moved to interlace his fingers with yours. Gently guiding your hand to his face, he planted a small kiss between your entangled fingers. The gesture both surprised and calmed you, but small hiccups still escaped from your throat despite your best efforts.

When you couldn't take it anymore, you let go of his hand to envelop him in a slow hug, burying your face into the crook of his neck. You were still mindful of the pads on his arms however. It didn't take long before he too carefully wrapped his arms around your frame.

You continued to sob into the collar of his vest. In a way, you washed the fears and the pain out with tears. It took a while, but you eventually calmed down enough to catch your breath.

"Hey." You raised your face from his shoulder and looked up at him at the sound of his voice. A gentle smile decorated his face. "Come here"

With your hand still enveloped by his, he guided you to the bed. He sat down and tugged on it until you stood between his legs. Then, he looked at you like he wanted your permission. Your reply was a weak smile.

You were consequently pulled down to lie beside him. He winced slightly when he had to turn around to lie on his side. When both of you laid still facing each other, you reached your hands out to place them on each side of his face and leaned in to position your forehead on his. Your face was still tear-streaked, and Grillby had scrunched his brows slightly up in pain. Letting out a shaky breath, he tried to relax himself as he didn’t want you to worry.

You breathed deeply in with the purpose of getting him to follow your slow inhalation. He obliged. Though, he sounded a bit shuddering at first. While continuing your breathing, you shifted a bit closer to tangle your legs with his, which successfully cut the distance between you even shorter. You tried being mindful of the pads covering his upper arms as you moved one of your hands down to lace your fingers once more. It was you, who had taken the initiative this time. 

He squeezed your fingers and tried to bring the arm he was lying on up to your face, but had to stop halfway due to the pain. Instead he rested it underneath your chin. You nuzzled your foreheads together, which told him without words to relax.

You rubbed your foot on his calf, noticing how long his legs were compared to yours. Now that you became aware of it, he really was much larger than you. His whole body could almost envelop you. You closed your eyes and continued to take deep breaths as you reveled in the heat he emitted.

"We can stay like this tonight; if you want to," you said softly. Upon hearing a hum of approval from him, you beamed and felt a bit more content.

As you cuddled under the warm sheets, you both fell asleep soundlessly. Because of the other’s presence, you both relaxed immensely. Sometime during the night, you woke up to Grillby turning and gasping in his sleep. Reaching over, you hugged him to your chest and whispered calming words, but as you were already half asleep you wouldn't quite be able to recall what you had said later. Although it did seem to make him stop trashing as he slept. Instead, he held onto you with a fast grip – even though his wounds still must have been hurting. After a while, you dozed off again. The next morning, you found that you hadn’t even moved an inch, but you didn't mind that at all, you thought sleepily and stayed like that until he too woke up a few hours later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass mod: "So! Here we are and with another chapter down! Sorry for the wait guys. Quality takes time, and these damn chapters keep getting longer even though I keep telling Alice that I'll make the next one shorter!!"
> 
> Alice mod: "Hah, like that’s going to happen anytime soon knowing you. Anyway, what happened when Past, Present, and Future walked into a bar? – It was tense! Maybe that’s how poor reader felt when they walked into Grillby’s bar for the first time. That’s certainly how I would react at least, but enough of that. I hope you guys enjoyed chapter two. Look forward to the next. It sounds like it’s going to be really interesting ;3"
> 
> Ass mod: "Yeah! And also, we want to mention that we will probably update on friday every second week! Though, HOPEFULLY, we will be able to update earlier than that, but no promises, since we each have our own lives to deal with (~owo)~"
> 
> Ass: Added on a later note "DO NOT USE THE WAY I'VE TREATED THE BURN IN THIS CHAPTER AS REFERENCE, DO NOT PUT A THIRDDEGREE BURN UNDER WATER AND DO NOT WRAP IT UP WITHOUT GOING TO A DOCTOR! I didn't really research this eheh ;v"


	3. Sleepovers, Longing, Skeletons and growing Affection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once the two of you had recovered, a certain incident leaves you with conflicting emotions that you don't know how to handle. It doesn't help that Sans has started acting a bit too cocky these recent days.

After the whole incident, the two of you continued to sleep together, as you were too stubborn to allow the other to sleep on the couch. Additionally, it was just more comfortable to be with somebody compared to being alone while healing. When one of you had some kind of problem the other would help take care it. As time passed, it just became routine.

However, sometimes lying beside him would become too hot, and you would scoot to the edge of the bed to cool down. Occasionally, you would give up on sleeping and get out of bed to drink a glass of water. Those times, you would get lost in your own thoughts and wonder about various odd or whimsical things at three in the morning.

You had begun to write your nightly thoughts down on small notes, and if they were particularly interesting you would text Sans about them. It seemed like he also possessed weird sleeping habits.

Time passed that way and winter became more rabid. You felt your toes were freezing off every time you went to the grocery store to pick up ingredients, but you didn’t mind, since Grillby couldn’t go out himself. Every time he tried he would get a headache from getting snuffed out by the wind.

Today was no exception. Hunched over, you walked through the twirling snow with a couple of bags in your arm. You breathed in visible huffs over the edge of your scarf. As you hurried along, you saw them blowing away in the wind. Almost slamming the door because of your momentum, you entered the apartment. While kicking off your newly purchased boots, you tried absorbing as much heat as possible from the room, seeing that you still shivered from the cold in your multilayered clothes.

Curses fell from your lips, when you loosened the soaked scarf from around your neck and threw it over the coat rack. You felt Grillby embrace you from behind, and suddenly, you weren't cold anymore. More heat than usual radiated off him, but it warmed your frozen body up successfully fast. You smiled, grasped loosely onto his arms, which were placed around your shoulders, and enjoyed the comfortable moment.

"Warmed up?" He asked. You hummed approvingly in reply. 

Both of you stood still for a moment longer before you separated. He went to work on whatever he was cooking before you arrived, and you took whatever excess clothing you had left on off before picking up your bags to carry them into the kitchen.

You stood in the living room, outside the ring of kitchen counters and sorted the different items in categories on the table. Grillby then put the things wherever they belonged in the different cupboards. The two of you had begun to perform this odd synchronized dance while in the kitchen. You could move around without bumping into each other, and you would often find yourselves reaching for something just as the other put it down.

When Sans saw this play out at the bar later, he snickered amusedly and pointed it out to Frisk with a laugh like the two of you weren’t even there.

“you know, frisk.” The child looked at Sans with a curious expression. He grinned mischievously down at them, as they were unknowingly being used to get a joke across. “they say that when a pair is able to move like that, you fibula that they are fated to be together.”

When you heard Sans’ comment, you literally froze, fumbled with the glass you were picking up from the counter and dropped it. It smashed on the floor and broke into a dozen razor-sharp pieces. You cursed under your breath at your carelessness.  As soon as you had tried to carefully pick up the pieces without cutting yourself, you sensed Grillby crouching down and grasping your wrist. He was stopping you from touching any of the remaining glass, as he began picking them up himself.

Oh gosh, he was really close. You could almost feel the heat from his face on yours. No, wait. That was just you blushing. Damn Sans and his unnecessary comments.

You almost wanted to draw your hand away, but at the same time you found that you were unable to. The gentle grip on your wrist was nailing you in place for some absurd reason. Nobody but the boney guy seemed to notice your predicament, and he only wriggled his eyebrows at you suggestively (you still had no clue how he managed that). It felt like your face was positively beaming from both the embarrassment and your close proximity to Grillby.

When he had finally gathered all of the pieces up and melted them into one big lump without any loose shards (you guessed by the use of magic), he let go of you and got up to get rid of the ball. He left you feeling perplexed and totally unsure of how to react. It appeared Grillby hadn’t heard what Sans had said, which left you one-sidedly embarrassed at the whole situation.

You aimed an uncomfortable glare at Sans as you stood up and brushed imaginary dust off of your pants, but you only got a chuckle as a reply. You determinedly decided to work as far away from Sans’ remarks as possible that day. Why yes, it looked like a great day to shovel snow away from the front of the building. The weather outside could even make it look like your face was only beet red because of the cold.

You quickly informed Grillby of your intention as you passed him, but only gaining a nod as a reply. All your willpower was used to resist a desire to smack the skeleton on the back of his head as you passed him. Instead you put your gloves and thick coat on and trudged outside to battle with both nature and the inner turmoil Sans had unleashed inside of you.

The worst of your frustration disappeared along with the snow as you kept shoveling. First, you worked on moving the snow in front of the bar, and then – when that wasn’t enough as a distraction – you began on clearing most of the walkway, which passed in front on the entrance. You only stopped when you almost couldn’t feel your fingers anymore. By now, most of your embarrassment had been used as fuel to shovel the snow, and, together with Frisk, the cause of your problems had also already been picked up by his overexcited brother. You hesitantly wandered in through the backdoor, careful of not dragging snow through the entire backroom. After removing the jacket and kicking the boots off you sat down on the couch. You felt oddly reminiscent. The alley you had just cleared from snow was where you had passed out that first day, huh. It felt like ages ago.

You sat for a few minutes just to let your train of thought go anywhere it wanted to, while you waited for your fingers to become warm again. As you absently stared at nothing in particular, you felt the couch dip when Grillby sat down beside you. You looked startled at him when he placed one of his warm hands over yours. Normally you wouldn’t have reacted, but after the whole experience earlier you couldn’t stop yourself from jumping slightly at the touch.

You cursed yourself for being jumpy when you saw him quickly draw his hand back with a slightly hurt expression crossing his features. Awkwardly, you rubbed your neck. It was a habit you seemed to have picked up from him. “S-Sorry Grillby, I didn’t really notice you there.”

He relaxed when you gently put your hand on top of his. At the same time, you tried your damnedest to calm down, so you wouldn’t make a scene like before. It wasn’t his fault that you still felt slightly worn out. You didn’t want it to become awkward between the two of you. Patting him slightly on the cheek (oh gosh, did you usually do that? You didn’t remember), you reassured him with your gaze that you had warmed up again, and that you would go scrub the floors or something.

The rest of the day you were kind of avoiding Grillby. You didn’t really want to, but for some stupid reason/skeleton you couldn’t stop doing it. Nevertheless, there was no avoiding him when you had to lock the bar up for the night and head to the apartment together. He was the only one with a key after all, and you didn’t like being alone despite the weird tension between you.

The rest of the evening passed by rather eventless until you found yourself on the couch watching a movie. Grillby was already half-asleep. He was nodding off upright even though it couldn’t be a comfortable position to sleep in, so with resolve shining in your eyes you bit the bullet and reached up to pat him gently on the cheek, getting his attention. He yawned and looked drowsily at you. You motioned for him to lie down, which he obeyed rather quickly. He must’ve been really exhausted though, because you quickly realized that his head was going to end up in your lap, but you didn’t dare move, which was mostly because the sweet guy already practically was asleep. In addition, you had slept in the same bed, like literally right beside him, for weeks. Therefore, this shouldn’t feel any different.

That was what you told yourself at least, but it didn’t stop you from feeling skittish when his head lay on top of your legs. You felt the heat seeping through your sweatpants, and it took you a few minutes of just staring at him before you could pry your eyes away to watch the movie, which you had completely forgotten about. Eventually, you relax.

Once you somewhat had gotten the hang of the plotline again you tentatively ran a hand through his ‘hair’. As you felt the flames play between your fingers, you forgot about what’s-her-name and what’s-the-movie-called yet again. With a sigh you gave up on even trying to pay attention to the movie. Instead, you enjoyed just gingerly stroking Grillby like you were. While the flames were warmer than the rest of him – which was something you had been speculating about – they didn’t seem to be under his control. Instead, they seemed to move according to how you stroked them.

Continuing, you began feeling a bit drowsy yourself, but at the same time you also felt oddly satisfied. You slowly moved down to rub small circles on his cheek. You weren’t even paying much attention to what you were doing as you lightly ran your fingers over his other features – or rather, missing ones. While he didn’t have a nose, it seemed keeping his spectacles on wasn’t an issue. You took them off, placing them on one of the beanbags beside the couch, so you wouldn’t risk losing them somewhere.

You softly touched the spot where his missing eyebrows should have been and gradually let your fingers glide down to his eyelids. As you didn’t want him to wake up, you only slightly let your fingers ghost over those. Running a couple of fingers over his jawline they came to a halt where his lips were supposed to be. You were a bit surprised he didn’t have any. Maybe they only appeared when he wanted them to; there had to be some perks to having a body entirely made of fire.

That was when you realized your mistake. You had stopped your continuous stroking, and it had apparently roused Grillby. You quickly snatched your hands away, grasping them in front of your chest as you felt your blood pass way to quickly through your veins. You could hear the erratic beating of your heart thunder in your ears as you stared at the not-quite-awake Grillby.

Slowly – like he wasn’t conscious about what he was doing – he rolled over onto his back and reached up to grasp onto one of your hands. You were about to pull it away, but since he looked so vulnerable at the moment you decided against it. Instead, you would just wait and see what he wanted to do in his drowsy state. He wouldn’t be mad over the fact that you had touched his face without his allowance, right?

However, with just one action he proved that it was actually quite the opposite. He pulled your hand down, and with sudden materialized lips he placed a light kiss on your palm. Ok, now you were certain that he definitely wasn’t awake. That was more intimate and groundbreaking than what both of you usually did. And oh my gosh, his lips were _soft_. Wait, stop thinking like that.

You didn't know what to do. His lips were still on your hand, and he was gently kissing a row of affection over your skin. Seeing that he still didn't look awake, you had no idea if he was doing this consciously or not, but after a handful (hah) of them he seemed to stop. While still holding onto your hand, he turned towards you. His face was almost pressed against your stomach. Then he fell asleep again.

If it was possible, steam would’ve come out of your ears. You couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened as you stared at the sleeping fire elemental in your lap. The whole situation seemed almost surreal, and it was quite embarrassing if you hadn’t been dreaming and everything actually happened as you thought it did. This guy, this _sweet_ guy! He just kissed your hand while practically dreaming, and then he fell back to sleep. What was this? Were you dreaming? You used the hand he wasn't holding onto to pinch your cheek. Nope, this was reality.

The thoughts scrambled in your head as you forced your gaze away from Grillby and back towards the TV, trying to distract yourself from his grip on your hand while attempting to figure out how to act around him tomorrow.

You were pretty sure that you fell asleep like that. Your thoughts were running asunder like a derailed train, and when you next awoke you were within Grillby's embrace.

You must have fallen sideways onto the couch when you fell asleep and then somehow entangled yourself with Grillby, because of the need to be nearer to his warmth. You totally blamed him for that. It at least seemed like he’d let go of your hand during the night, but while that _was_ a relief your current situation wasn't much better for your poor heart. His arms were around your waist, and his head lay on top of you somewhere between your chest and shoulder. While one of your pitiful arms was free, the other was stuck underneath him, and it felt pretty dead to you. You had no idea what to do now. It was probably a good start to wake him up.

Reaching up to pinch the area between his brows – you didn't feel like being gentle when waking him, since he was the reason why you felt flustered from just being this close – you grumble under our breath with your hoarse morning voice.

"Grillby, you're killin' my arm."

His brows scrunched together in the most adorable way, making you flick your finger on his forehead. This seemed to rouse him a bit more efficiently, seeing as his eyes slightly fluttered open. When he finally seemed to focus on you, you gave him the best 'good morning sleepyhead' smile you could muster. He let go of your waist to run a hand over his eyes, trying to actually stay awake. Thank _god_.

When he saw that he pretty much was completely pressed against you in an attempt to stay on the couch, he let out some kind of weird noise – like the crackling of a fireplace – and actually fell off the couch as he tried to give you some space. You heard a small thud as he made contact with the floor.

Once you've regained the movement in your arm, you lean over to peek down at Grillby on the floor. He is just lying there, clutching his head. Ah, it was probably his head that collided with the wooden floor. You sit up, leaning down to see if he is alright.

"You okay?"

You received a pained nod from him, poor guy, could he even get bumps on his head? Because it sure looks like that would be a nasty one. You lift yourself down onto the floor, motioning for him to come closer. Obeyingly he sits up, still with his hands on his head and turned his back to you, letting you have a closer look. Once he removes his hands, you can see a small red-ish bruise in the middle of the flames there.

"Can I touch?" You ask cautiously. 

"...Careful"

You give a hum in reply, gently pressing your fingers first onto the area around it, then ever so slightly against the red bruise. Hearing a small hiss of pain, you quickly remove your hand.

"Sorry! But it doesn't look too bad; do you think that you should use one of those heating packs for this?"

He nods slowly, and you stand up to go to the bathroom to fetch it. When you come back, Grillby's sitting on the couch again, looking like he was deep in thought. You sat beside him, slightly startling him away from whatever plane his mind was on, and back to the current. He mutters a thanks as you handed him the heat pack to press against the bruise, the two of you sat there for a minute, both trying to properly wake.

That's when last night's scenario popped into your head, oh right, that happened. You could feel yourself flush at the memory, to escape any awkward scenarios that might occur; you quickly inform Grillby that you will be taking a shower. Dodging out of there before he can reply, you noticed that you'd actually slept in your everyday clothes, and that they're really sweaty and gross. Showering sounded like a heavenly plan.

You took longer than usual in the bathroom, trying to stall so that you can sort out your thoughts before you had to face Grillby again. You had no idea as to how you were going to act normal around him today. Since your sense of how to talk to him had been thrown off the loop, after last night.

When you finally emerge from the bathroom, somewhat relaxed and certainly better smelling, whereas the only solution you came up with was to try and avoid being left alone with Grillby today.

Breakfast was alright, quiet but alright. Maybe except that you almost choked on a glass of water, when Grillby unsuspectingly came up from behind, but besides from that you think it went well enough. After, you excused yourself with forgetting to do something, so that you stayed behind when Grillby went to open the bar for today, that way you avoided having to walk with him. When you then 15 minutes later appeared, you could just excuse yourself with the chores. That way, most of the day passed without any other major occurrences.

When it was about 8 in the evening when Frisk and Sans dropped by, you shot the skeleton a nasty glare before you sat down to converse with Frisk, using a notepad you had stored underneath the bar. You found that you really liked them, not just because both of you were humans, but because you could openly talk to them about almost anything and in return, so did they.

Both of you were happily chatting away, you told them that you felt like maybe you should try and spend some time outside of the bar or the apartment, not specifying why but just casually mentioning it. When they hear this, they got very excited; so much that you almost couldn’t read their handwriting. When you tell them that they should maybe try to write it in a less cursive way (it wasn't even cursive anymore) they quickly spun around on the bar chair, signing almost as hurriedly as when writing, at Sans.

He raised his eyebrows ( _How?_ ) at what they were apparently telling him. "huh, sounds like a great idea frisk" He then looks over at you "they want to do a sleepover tonight if you're up for it, since they're staying at our place and it's nearby."

You looked back at Frisk, and you feel a dumb smile spread across your face. You were getting all excited, picking Frisk up in a bear hug and spinning them around, you earned a few odd looks from some of the patrons sitting nearby, but you didn't care. This was the perfect opportunity to be with Frisk, and also gained some time away from Grillby to sort out your feelings.

You looked over at him to check and see if it's alright, he gives you a nod and you shoot him a smile. Most of your time the rest of the day, between chores, was spent chatting with Frisk and discussing what you wanted to do tonight. You didn't get a chance to talk to Grillby before you had to rush out of the door with Frisk dragging you to the house. Carrying a few things with you that you'd need for the sleepover.

When Frisk entered the skelebrother's home with you in tow, you cannot help but gape a little. Their house was simply furnished, but rather large. A fairly sized kitchen downstairs connects to the living room where the entrance also is, but the living room itself was pretty big, at the back there's a stairwell which you guess lead up to the rooms upstairs.

You were dragged over to the large couch in the middle of the room, Frisk gesturing for you to leave your stuff there and then proceeded to pull you up the stairs. You see that there’s three doors there, one covered in stickers and signs, you’re guessing Papyrus, and another plain one with some odd lighting coming out from underneath. You shuddered, not wanting to think about what in Sans’ room could emit such eerie luminosity. At the end of the hall, were a newer looking door. Probably something added recently to the house for Frisk or others to reside in when visiting.

They open the door, revealing a modest room. It feels homely, kind of like how you were at peace at Grillby’s apartment. The unexpected comparison made you stumble a bit and you almost smacked your face into the doorframe. Frisk looked a bit worriedly at you, but when you gave them a thumb up to say that you’re okay, they smile, continuing to drag you into the room. Both of you sat down on the large bed, them almost bouncing up and down from excitement, they quickly fished out a notebook to talk with and a whole bunch of colored pencils. You quickly got the hint, and soon, the two of you were conversing more using pictures than words, it was really fun.

Time passed, and before you knew it, Papyrus was eagerly yelling to Frisk that that spaghetti (not dinner?) was done. Both of you rising from the pile of discarded papers and crayons to go downstairs, when you saw the two skeleton brothers chatting away, you cringed a bit.

Argh, you didn’t expect that Sans would be home tonight. You knew that he would mention how you’d reacted to his comment at the bar and most likely not relent with his bad puns all night. For now you could just try and keep the conversation going with Frisk and Papyrus, hoping to steer clear of any topics that might give the skeleton an opening to strike at.

Sadly, you were only able to avoid the imminent shower of puns until Papyrus actually served the spaghetti. It being burning hot, made you yelp a bit when it burnt your tongue. It was the perfect chance for Sans to grasp.

“hey kid, thought you were used to dealing with something that’s searing hot?”

With your poor tongue still burning, you shot him a nasty glare as a warning not to go any further than that. However, Sans gave you no mercy as he continued.

“you know, if you wanted something scalding, you might’ve wanted to stay at home”

You chewed vigorously at the guilty spaghetti, trying to swallow it so you could retort. Too bad that the puns went unnoticed by Papyrus since he hadn’t been at the scene of the crime, so he didn’t get the context and couldn’t prevent his brother from continuing. He was the most efficient blockade for Sans’ continuous stream of puns.

Frisk however, couldn’t stop him either since he were intentionally looking away from them, as not to see what they were signing at him. You shot them a thankful smile for their efforts, but it seemed that you are on your own with facing this bonehead.

He twirled around a bit of the spaghetti on his plate with his fork, eyeing it for a moment. And you stupidly hoped that he would let you go with that. His brother was beginning to squint his eyes at him suspiciously, as if he was catching on to the related choice of words.

Stupid indeed.

He puts down the fork, looking at you for a moment before his grin widens. Seeing that, you feel a shudder run down your spine, you were in for a bad time.

“you sure look bonely for somebody who was all snuffed out from being around Grillby before”

Okay, that was it. Now even Papyrus caught onto the teasing, loudly complaining about Sans’ lack of common curtesy and apologizing to you for their brother. You just looked down at the inedible spaghetti, contemplating if you should just leave it there and escape to Frisk’s room until the jokester had cooled down. You were almost burning from the embarrassment; he had gone a bit too far with that last comment and you didn’t know how to tell him.

Luckily, Frisk decided the results of the dispute when they stood up on their chair to smack Sans on the back of his head. Gently though, just hard enough to snap him out of whatever mood he was in. Turning to look at them, he saw them scowling and crossing their arms, they had seemingly felt that he’d made you uncomfortable and didn’t approve, no matter if it was intentional or not. Hanging his head a bit, it sunk in that he had gone too far. He turned back to look at you, scratching his head and tried to apologize.

“ah, sorry kid. when i get into it, i can’t seem to stop.”

You stared at him for a moment, then shook your head. As a prankster, you guessed that he didn’t get a lot of chances to joke around with Grillby-related puns, since they didn’t seem to bother him much. You ran your hand through your hair, replying.

“Nah Sans, it’s alright.”

Now it was his turn to shake his head in denial. He looked more serious now, despite the never-leaving smile on his face; you could see the slight regret lingering there.

“kid, i know i went too far and next time, stop me. i don’t want to hurt a friend.”

Frisk got his attention, signing at him for a moment before he let out a short laugh.

“yeah sure Frisk, you can smack me to get my attention anytime if you want to make me shut my mouth.”

You smiled, feeling better now and continued to watch them chat back and forth, with only Sans speaking. Papyrus had watched the bicker, remaining uncharacteristically quiet, before he just grinned and continued to devour his unbelievably large serving of spaghetti. The three of you also tried to dig in, well two of you tried while Sans just pushed the meal made of random ingredients around on his plate. Finishing dinner was a challenge that both you and Frisk just barely managed to accomplish as not to make Papyrus sad.

After dinner, the four of you dragged some of the pillows and mattresses downstairs to make a pile that was comfortable for the four of you. Where Papyrus eagerly almost tried to drag his actual bed down before you and Frisk convinced him, that it was not allowed by the actual rules for sleepovers. It made the enthusiastic skeleton calm down, and after about an hour of work, you had produced a pretty nice pile of mattresses and pillows to sleep on.

After that the four of you laid down to watch some movies, starring Papyrus’s celebrity crush Mettaton. You personally didn’t care much for the talking calculator, but you must admit that you liked his acting in the chosen movies, giving you the impression that Papyrus taste in the TV-shows seemed way better than the ingredients used in his food. You were placed at one end of the pile with Frisk beside you, where the brothers were placed on the other side of them, Papyrus cuddling up to Frisk. When the third movie started rolling, the clock hit somewhere around midnight. The two in the middle of your comfortable pile had fallen asleep sometime during the second, which left you and Sans staring sleepily at the TV as another romantic movie started rolling.

A foot nudged your calf, drawing your attention away from the screen. It was Sans, suddenly standing by your side of the mattresses, he gestured for you to go join him in the kitchen. You stood up and groggily staggered forward, grabbing a can of soda to drink while you were there, hoping the sugar would wake you a bit.

You turned around to seeing Sans rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, not yet filling the slightly uncomfortable silence between the two of you. This gave you the chance to look a bit closer at him, noticing that he seemed more tired than usual. Something similar to bags under his eyes were visible and his overall stance spoke of a deep exhaustion. Why did it look like he hadn’t slept for several weeks? You took another sip of your can, about to say something, when he suddenly spoke.

“Sans are you-“

“kid i need to-“

Ah. Both of you stopped speaking when you heard the other. You stared at each other for a second before both of you started to chuckle, relieving that strange tension you had going. Turning your laugh into a cough, you straighten, looking at Sans for him to continue what he was saying. He took your cue, still smiling as he repeated what he had started to say earlier.

“sorry kid, i just wanted to say that i’m sorry that i took the joke too far earlier”

You started at him for a bit, slightly perplexed that he were actually still hung up about that. Then you smiled reassuringly at him, leaning back on the kitchen counter as you took another sip. “It’s ok Sans, I’m not mad.”

He let out a breath, you had no idea that could even hold any air in his body, but this wasn’t the time to ponder about such details, the only thing that mattered was that he seemed more relaxed after your assurance.

“heh, my bad kid. I just don’t know when my jokes cut a bit too close to the bone”

You let out a breathy laugh. “It’s really alright Sans, you just caught me a bit off guard is all.”

Letting out hum of approval, he turned over to look at the pile of blankets and pillow that hid his brother and Frisk. His tense shoulders slumped down a bit – before you hadn’t even noticed that he’d been this stressed about his accidental mishap. Even if you couldn’t see his face with his back turned towards you, you felt that he was staring lovingly at the pair.

“It’s nice with them around, they’re always good at catching me when i slip. and to pay them back, i try to keep them out of their own messes”

Nodding to yourself at his statement, you thought about your own companion. Grillby never seemed to need any real help, it was actually quite the opposite, you were more dependent on him that you’d ever been on somebody else. However, he seemingly never permitted you to support him. Always denying your wishes to help with that same gentle shake of his head. The thought that you were more of a burden to him, honestly concerned you and made you feel quite uncomfortable.

“but don’t think that you start should compare our relationships to yours kid”

Huh? Was he able to guess what you were thinking? You tried to wave your hand in a casual way, intending to assure him that you were in absolutely no way thinking something along those lines, no sir.

Sans let you a small laugh. “you know, you’re not fooling this old bag of bones”

You looked at him oddly as he continued.

“oh come on kid, i’ve seen how you react to being around grillby, and you’re telling me that you haven’t caught on to it yourself?”

You shook your head, puzzled at what he was hinting at. “Sorry Sans, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” It seemingly sobered him up a bit, as you had obviously not yet caught onto whatever he meant. Scratching the back of his head he looked down at the linoleum covered floor.

“alright, it seems that you don’t get it yet” he faked an awkward cough into his hand continuing. “you know that I gotta keep an eye socket out for my pals right?”

You nodded, still not following.

“and one day i suddenly see grillby taking care of a human, and you see, it’s not like you’re the first one that he’s dug out of a fix. but you’re the first one that he’s actually letting live with him.”

Another nod.

“I mean there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s _great_ in a way, grillby’s finally letting another skele see him without his cool –“ he cuts himself off, rubbing the base of his palm against his forehead. “no you know what, i’m rambling, so i’m cutting straight to the bone of this”

Before you noticed it, he’s teleported to sit on the tablecounter right beside you, giving you a small scare. Without even apologizing for scaring you out of your skin from the sudden teleport, he looks you dead in the eye –well socket, and you noticed that small beads of sweat had gathered on his brow.

“kid, do you care for grillby like I think you do?”

What.

You stare at him, completely stunned for a few moments before you remove your eyes from his, unexpectedly intense, gaze. Looking down on the patterned floor, you can feel yourself flush as the meaning of his words dawned on you. A few memories persistently appearing in your head; Grillby sleeping beside you, his glasses still on and you playfully making him aware of it. Grillby taking your hand when you had almost slipped on the icy walkway, keeping you upright. Grillby’s hurt expression when you got injured that one time. Grillby, half asleep, kissing your palm. Grillby standing by the bar, smiling over something you’d said.

Oh my god.

You looked back at Sans, who was still nervously eyeing you, surely hoping for some kind of reply. You turned away again, not able to say this outright if he looked at you that way, with that mixture of fear and hope in his eyes. You stuttered out what you thought would answer his question, wringing your hands similarly to how you felt your mind being wrung out, one memory at a time appearing insistently before your eyes. 

“I-I don’t know- I haven’t really felt like this before and I don’t know as to what I should think it is-“

You began running your hands through your hair as your mind counted backwards to figure out if you could pinpoint the exact point this strange feeling had started fluttering in your chest, to no avail as scenes and dates muddled together in your mind.

“There’s just so much that’s happened a-and I don’t even think I can say for sure that this is ‘like’, or even something that resembles l-love and- Sans!” that last outcry cut your derailed ramblings as you heard Sans snorting and starting to wholeheartedly laugh. He toppled over onto the floor, still grinning like a maniac as tears pressed at the edge of his eyes.

When he saw your shocked expression, he burst into another round of cackling as he laid on the tiles, clutching at his sides. Seeing him like that snapped you out of whatever panic-mode you brain had been overriding with, and instead you started scowling at him.  

When he finally seemed to have gotten the humor (no no, no puns) out of his system, seeing your mad expression, he snorted again.

“not sorry kid, you should have seen yourself”

He hoisted himself off the floor and walked over to the opening into the livingroom, not even glancing back at you, he dared shoot one last comment.

“if you turn see through just like that, i think i have nothing to worry about.” And with that, the fucking bonehead just teleported away. Leaving you flushed, both with fury and the nonsensical cluster of feelings that you felt towards a specific elemental.

Muttering non-flattering words about a specific pun-loving, unforgivable skeleton, you trudge over to lay yourself back beside Frisk. Wishing that sleep would just sweep you away to a place where you didn’t have to deal with punny skeletons and confusing feelings for a guy literally made of fire.

Instead of having your desperate wish fulfilled, you were instead dragged down into a dream where you felt the gently touch of fire stroking your skin, cupping your cheeks as you gazed into the inferno bending down to gently press his lips onto your-

“WAKE UP HUMAN, IT IS TIME FOR YOUR MORNING EXERCISES!”

You startle awake at the exclamation, Papyrus had graciously spared your sanity by cutting off your trip to dreamland. When you opened your eyes to see what was going on, the sight of having Papyrus’ face right in front of yours greeted you, making you jump and smack your forehead into his. Ow. Connecting your face with pure non-soft calcium hurt. Drawing back to press your hand to the offended area, you felt a headache coming on.

“I APOLOGIZE HUMAN, I SHOULD HAVE DODGED YOUR INCOMING HEADBUTT WITH MY SUPER RELFLEXES!”

You cranked open an eyelid again, just to see Papyrus pose heroically in front of your mattress, dressed in a tanktop and workout shorts. When he saw that you were fully awake, he smiled and strode over to the kitchen, still talking.

“SO FRISK INSISTED THAT WE SHOULD PREPARE SOMETHING OTHER THAN SPAGETTIG LEFTOVERS FOR YOU, SO THEY AND SANS HAVE COOKED SOME EGGS THAT YOU CAN EAT.”

You mumbled something like a confirmation. Whereas Papyrus dragged you up to a bunch of exercises with him, when you finally gave in and told him that you couldn’t handle any more training, he huffed and released you from your suffering. You meekly ate breakfast, not really having that much of an appetite left. When you were done, you told Papyrus you would be on your way back, since Frisk had left early for school and Sans hadn’t shown his face since last night. Papyrus enthusiastically bid you goodbye with a hug that left you unable to breathe, before you exited the house and went on the small walk back home.

Trudging through the slight snow covering the pavement, you contemplated as to how you would act around Grillby from now on, an issue you’d actually been fighting with since that night a little while ago.

Sadly, before you were able to sort out your thoughts and come up with an answer to all of your desperate prayers, you found yourself standing in front of the apartment building. You gave it an once-over, seeing that the lights were still on in the livingroom, telling you that Grillby was still home. Well, so much for a solution to your problems. You decide just to face the issue head-on, praying that a revelation would dawn on you before you ended up in any awkward situations.

Knocking on the door, you’re met with the sight of Grillby wearing his casual clothing. Looking quite unraveled and somewhat restless, it was actually kind of endearing. You smile at him, entering and stripping off your coat and soaked boots.

“Hey Grillby, thanks again for letting me stay over at Frisk’s place it was fun-“

Further details were cut off as you straightened, Grillby’s arms enveloping you in a hug as to warm you up from the cold walk back. With your face pressed against the fabric of his shirt, you give a little laugh before you return the embrace. That’s when you can smell the familiar scent of carbon, smoke and lemon. Suddenly, the same cluster of feelings you were hit by last night persistently appear again.

Oh, no. this isn’t good at all. You were falling _hard_ for Grillby, and you didn’t know if your poor heart could handle it. This sweet, handsome, hot guy… Oh god, you had a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "Hello everyone, I'm sorry to announce this. But Alice is dropping out of the project to manage her time better since she's going back to school and is stressed enough as it is. Alas, I must inform everyone that the chapters will of a grade lower quality since she won't be around to Beta the chapters. Though, while this saddens me, it will allow me to post the chapters a bit faster and I might now be able to stick to the two-week schedule!" 
> 
> Ass: "In any case I'm glad to have her help with the earlier chapters and about half of this one, so thank you Alice! and I hope you guys will love this extra-long chapter /(;u;/)"


	4. Jokes, Cooking, Heroics and Soothing embraces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the revelation of your sudden romantic feelings towards your housemate, things seemingly get a little more complicated than you'd expected.

As you hesitantly released him, letting him go back to whatever he was doing before you came in. you saw that there was a mess in the kitchen and the sink was cluttered with dishes. You curiously looked at the burnt non-recognizable blotches of food sticking to the discarded pans. Wondering what he was cooking that seemed to prove such difficulty to him, you eyed the laptop sitting on the only clean surface in the entire kitchen, seeing a bunch of different tabs open on diverse healthy recipes. When you leaned in to have a closer look at some of them, the computer smacks closed, only centimeters from your nose.

Startling away, you shot Grillby a curious look as he picked up the laptop. Something seems weird about him though, a white-ish layer of light covered the middle part of his face, making it seem like the flames there were burning more brightly. You ponder about why he looked like that, as he awkwardly walked over to dump it on one of the beanbags. He then proceeded to sit down on the couch, leaning back and pinching between his brows, similarly to what you did when trying to calm down. Then it dawned on you that the reason for why he glowed a bright white. It was because he was embarrassed. He was blushing!

The revelation made you smile, relieved that you hadn’t offended him or anything. However, you did wonder why he tried to keep his experimental cooking a secret from you; if he found it difficult you could’ve helped him a bit, even if your culinary skills were at a low level. It didn’t really make sense to you, but you tried to express that you could relate to his predicament. Whatever it might be.

“Don’t worry about it Grillby, everyone fails at cooking sometimes, it’s not something to feel down about.”

You heard the startled crack of fire from the couch, as he realized why you were trying to console him. Oh shoot, did you misunderstand? Wasn’t he just testing out something new that he could use for the restaurant? You tentatively walked around the couch so that you could see him, wondering about what else might be the problem. Nevertheless, when he dismissively waved his hand at you, you decided to let it drop. He would tell you if it was important.

When you turn away to start cleaning up the mess left by your housemate, you felt the vibration of an incoming message in your pocket. Curious, you fish it out to see a re-named contact light up on your screen.

‘The Punmaster’.

You didn’t even question how Sans got his boney hands on your mobile device to change the contact name, but you did want to slap a hand to your forehead as you saw his message. You didn’t though, since it would seem odd to Grillby and you didn’t want to make it weirder between the two of you. Even if you were falling hard for the guy, it was no reason to actually act on it…yet. Argh! Just stop thinking about it!

Unlocking the stubborn old device, you opened the newly received notification in your inbox. Just to quickly retreat into the bedroom before you actually yelped aloud, because you certainly didn’t know how else to react to Sans’ stupid message.

**From: The Punmaster – 11:34**

**you jumped grillbys bones yet?**

Failing in keeping your composure, you flopped onto the bed and promptly pressed your face into the pillows as to muffle the screams and curses aimed at the skeleton. Lifting your head from the soft surface, you typed out a –hopefully harsh – reply.

**To: The Punmaster – 11:37**

**I stg sans if you’re going to continue like this from now on!**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:37**

**oh come on you know that it had to be asked**

You consider not responding, as you knew that it would just spur him on. But before you could decide, another message chimed in.

**From: The Punmaster – 11:38**

**considering that you got all ignited last night i say it’s justified ;)**

That unleashes another long episode of you flushing and cursing. Now you’re certain, this level of teasing is not worth replying to. Another row of dumb messages arrived but you didn’t even feel like checking them, leaving the prankster with no satisfaction as to him getting under your skin.

You laid still on the bed for a while, purposely ignoring the continuous notifications that lightened up your phone every few minutes. Just contemplating if it was worth it to walk back into the living room with your complexion as badly thrown off as it was. As it were, the gods seemingly didn’t grant you any retribution. Seeing that a little while after your phone stops flashing, Grillby walked in, undoubtedly to see what made you literally bolt for the bedroom.

You keep quiet as your face was still mushed into the pillows in a meek attempt at blocking out the world, which also prevented you from speaking anything coherent. Perhaps silence was the fortunate choice of action, as Grillby sat down by the edge of the bed to place one of his hands over yours. You released a weak laugh into the pillows; just how sweet was this guy? Nevertheless, his gesture spoke well enough, he wanted to make sure that you were alright and if there was anything that he could help with.

You huffed something incoherent into the pillows, assuring him that you were well and living. Gesturing tiredly at the phone, you hoped that it explained your sudden mood swing, as you didn’t feel like turning around from your current comfortable position. Actually, it wasn’t all that nice to stay in since you could already feel a crink beginning to bug your neck at the awkward angle. Nevertheless, you didn’t want to risk revealing your flushed face to him so you stayed still. You heard a chuckle resounding from him and the bed then suddenly dipped as he laid down beside you. You waited for a few minutes before raising your face to meet his gaze. To realize that he was only a few centimeters away from you.

Internally screaming, you gaze into the whites that you identified with his eyes, while trying your damnest not to recoil off the bed. It was especially hard when he reached around to pull you closer, pressing his forehead against yours. Oh your poor love-struck heart was not taking this well. It was thundering insistently in your ears, forcing you to realize that you probably hadn’t breathed for a handful of seconds.

Taking in a shaky lungful of air, you shut your eyes and try to avoid inhaling it as he nuzzles your forehead. It’s easier when you can’t really see him, only the flicker of his light reflected on your eyelids giving away your desperate attempt at fleeing from reality. A stray thought goes through your brain, ‘you’re close enough to kiss him’ and you involuntarily stiffen, cursing up a storm in the back of your head at your bold train of thought. When he felt you turn into a piece of wood in his arms, he pulled back and released his hold while staring curiously at you.

You let out a shaky laugh, thinking about why do you have to be this awkward about it all, please somebody save you. Trying to reassure him that there’s nothing wrong, you try shooting him a smile that you’re pretty sure is just as uncertain as your statement. He seemingly chooses not to comment on it, sitting up again and just stares oddly at you as you flush again. What was this weird habit you’d developed with you blushing and how did you get rid of it? You decided to contemplate a possible cure later and sit up to grab at the phone, a way of distracting yourself from the warmth in the gaze you could feel settle between your shoulder blades. Trying to force your focus away from the sensation, you unlock your ancient phone and read through the stream of messages a certain skeleton had been bugging you with.

You regretted it.

**From: The Punmaster – 11:39**

**come on kid you know its steaming between the two of you**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:42**

**gotta work that fire while it’s hot**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:42**

**in the way that he is always hot**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:44**

**but really kid, did you already confess since youre not writing back yet**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:45**

**oh my god**

**From: The Punmaster – 11:54**

**kid**

**From: The Punmaster – 12:02**

**i am cashing this in from undyne later**

You begin to hastily type out a row of messages, desperately attempting to prevent the stubborn bonehead from letting his train of thought stray too far. You didn’t know who this ‘Undyne’ was, but if there was any sort of betting going on between Sans and somebody else, it couldn’t be good. You could just imagine him misunderstand your sudden quietness and jump to some conclusions that your poor heart would not be able to handle the reality of yet.

**To: The Punmaster – 12:06**

**Oh nonononono, whatever you and undine is thinking i s not heppening at all!!!**

**To: The Punmaster – 12:06**

**And stop trying to hook us up!!1!**

**To: The Punmaster – 12:07**

**…also those puns are horrible and noT FUNNY**

You stare at the hastily typed messages, cringing a bit at the typos that you’d made in your haste in replying to him. Well, no chance at correcting those, even if they did annoy you a bit. As you sent the last message, he had seemingly replied to one of the previous ones.

**From: The Punmaster – 12:06**

**heh, chill I don’t want you to act like a fish fresh out of water**

You squint at the message, getting the saying but not seeing where the pun was. Maybe it had something to do with this ‘Undyne’ person, but you didn’t especially wish to catch on to every single pun he threw your way and just decided to ignore it.

**To: The Punmaster – 12:08**

**Easy for you to say, you’re not the one on the receiving end of your puns**

After contemplating it for a moment, you decide to share your earlier questions as to why Grillby had been cooking. It would serve as a distraction, diverting Sans’ attention elsewhere than your non-existent dating life.

**To: The Punmaster – 12:10**

**Anyways, do you have any idea as to why he would be cooking alone?**

**From: The Punmaster – 12:13**

**…what kind of cooking?**

You recalled the recipes you’d seen littered on the screen.

**To: The Punmaster – 12:14**

**Healthy stuff I think? He shut the computer before I could get a look**

Sans didn’t reply for a while after that, leaving you wondering if he’d blown a fuse or something. Probably not the case considering he had no fuses to blow since he was a literal skeleton, but you wouldn’t eliminate the possibility when it came to this guy.

As you waited for a reply from Sans, you rolled back around to be met with the nice revelation that Grillby had probably watched the entire conversation play out. He probably had a feeling about who the recipient was, but chose not to comment. You shot him another smile that was not reassuring at all, really wishing that you could just hide your face in the pillows again.

“I- ah… Uhm…” You found that saying ‘Sans was bothering me about wanting us to date’ sounded quite silly. So not knowing what to tell him made the awkward thread of words hang in the air.

When redirecting your eyes away from him, you can suddenly felt his soft hand on top of your head. Ruffling the strands a bit, he reassured you. “…Don’t force yourself.” 

With that, he rose from the bed. Heading back into the kitchen to continue cleaning up whatever he’d been experimenting with. Leaving you rather stumped. While he’d run his fingers through your locks before, he never actually gave it a playful noggie as he did then. It didn’t unnerve you per say, but after your newly-discovered feelings had bloomed, even small changes in how he treated you felt precious. To say that you were flushed was mild, you felt almost as hot as when Grillby laid pressed up against you.

It took you a minute to calm down, and another to make your legs listen to you. When you walked back outside of the room, another message from Sans beeped in on your phone.

**From: The Punmaster – 12:41**

**I have a plan. Help me convince Grillby**

Mystified by the cryptic text from Sans (more so by his sudden use of punctuation and capitalization than anything else), you replied with a short ‘ok’, before stuffing the device back in your pocket. Wondering about what the skeleton urged the help for, since it must’ve be quite the scheme if he needed your assistance.

However, not long before you moved outside of the room, you heard the chime of a different phone than your own, going off. It must’ve been Grillby’s, seeing that when the sound stops, the fire elemental started speaking. It was low and hushed, since you’re still in the bedroom and couldn’t catch onto the words. Nevertheless, not being able to catch whom Grillby was speaking with or what was being said made your curiosity perk.

Sneaking into the living room, you saw Grillby standing in the middle of the kitchen his phone pressed against the side of his face. For a quick moment, you wonder about how hearing works with him, but quickly shook the thought out of your mind since it really wasn’t relevant. The answer would most likely be magic in any case.

When Grillby spotted you and gestured to his phone, you smiled and placed a finger over your lips as to tell him that you didn’t want to interrupt. He nodded and continued the conversation, you could probably guess that it was Sans on the other end of the call, and wondered if this had anything to do with that cryptic message he sent to you. Going over to sit on the couch, you picked up a book that you saw lying there. ‘Of mice and men’, huh. Seems like Grillby likes the classical part of literature, you did not envy him, since you were forced to read all a lot of this stuff in school. It had killed your lust for the classics.

Placing the book on one of the armrests, you sat down, waiting for Grillby and Sans to finish talking. Fiddling with your phone, you heard the quiet murmur of Grillby’s voice continuing to flow from within the kitchen area. You really wanted to know what they were talking about, but you did not want to eavesdrop. First, it would be rude, second you were about as sneaky as an elephant in a floor filled with whoopee cushions. However, you did manage to catch Grillby’s last words, by the end of the conversation.

“…Alright Sans, I’ll try to ask them.” 

You suddenly were deeply interested in the stuff on your phone, as Grillby seemingly had hung up and were walking over to you. Eurgh, the ability to start a conversation seems to have slipped your mind. To your luck though, Grillby took the initiative.

“Feeling better?” You nodded mutely, feeling your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth and preventing you from speaking.

Both of you sit for a moment, it was really awkward and uncomfortable as you try to figure out what to say. Finally, you free your tongue from the glue that held it stuck and managed to speak.

“Uhm, so-“ oh dear, how were you going to ask this. “w-who were you talking to?” Why, thank you stutter, for making this even more awkward to ask.

Seemingly catching onto your nervousness, Grillby lets out a small chuckle, making you flush red from embarrassment and a cluster of feelings suddenly pressing insistently in your chest. Seriously, crushing on this guy was not something easy to deal with when he was as charming as this. Even his laugh made you turn into a pile of mush. Okay, pull it together! You needed to figure out what Sans’ plan was.

“It was Sans.” Oh, uh, right. So it had been the skeleton who’d called. “He was asking if the two of us would like to join Undyne and Papyrus for one of their cookinglessons, ah-“ He paused, seemingly thinking about something. “Have you met Undyne before?”

When you shook your head, he sighed and rubbed his neck. That was probably the most you’ve heard him say at once. Ever. You didn’t want to him to stop, you wondered if it was something Sans had said that made him all chatty? If you didn’t know better you’d say that he seemed nervous. At the same time you wondered how you could make him talk like this normally, his voice sent a comfortable heat through your body that centered around your heart. It was nice, especially since the only times anything rivalled this, were when Grillby slept right beside you and would be almost pressed flush against you.

Sighing again, he continued. “Undyne is rather spirited, for a lack of a better word. She’s Alphys’ girlfriend and her with Papyrus is an even more intense experience…”

You nodded, you remembered Alphys, the sweet dinosaur monster with a doctorate. Even if the only times you’d spoken with her were the check-ups after the whole fire/water incident, she was nervous and stuttering but you liked her well enough. Huh, you wondered about how she could get along with her – according to Grillby’s description – wild girlfriend. Well it looked like you’d find out in the near future, if everything went according to Sans’ plan.

You turned the idea in your head for a few minutes, while you didn’t mind Papyrus’ company, you got rather quickly tired because of his energetic personality. Which is why you preferred to only speak with him in small portions, so that you could recharge before conversing with him again.

Well you could probably handle double the papyrus, if it was only for a few hours. “Sure, I don’t mind going.”

Grillby glanced worriedly at you, “Are you certain? I’m sure Sans wouldn’t offend if you aren’t feeling up to it.”

Shooting him a small smile, you assured him “It’s alright, you’re coming too right?”

“…Yes.” Did he seem, hesitant? Oh no, maybe it was him that didn’t feel like showing up. You reached up to cradle his cheek in your palm, him leaning down to meet your touch. “I just fear that Sans has something up his sleeve, he usually never ask me for any favors.”

Despite you not being able to see them, you thought that he closed his eyes when you shyly ran your thumb over the heat you could identify with his skin. His own hand reached up to press over yours, making your heart leap against your ribs. You thought that the color over the middle of his face is brighter than before, like he was blushing again. But at the same time, your addled mind didn’t make a big deal out of noticing this since you couldn’t retract your hand. It was that same paralysis as back in the bar when you dropped that glass. All of your focus was on him, on the slight increase in heat that ran throughout your body, the large palm that was covering yours.

The two of your just sat there for a moment, time suspended, on some other plane of existence. You could feel the blood gather in your face, turning it flushed and red as you looked at him with a fondness that clearly weren’t platonic. For a second, you felt him gently squeezing your fingers, your mind overflowed with the need to tell him what your heart was screaming at you with. Emotions, way beyond what you knew how to express. Fondness, so strong but so steadily built that you hadn’t even noticed how far it had started to reach.

Before your mind betrayed you however, you forced yourself to turn your eyes away from his face, dropping your gaze down onto your lap instead. It was a little easier like this, when you couldn’t see the contentment in his features and how he ostensibly relaxed in your presence. To prevent yourself from literally combusting, you started to speak. Barely above a whisper, had you spoken above a normal volume, you feared that you would’ve burst the bubble that had settled over the two of you.  

“Has Sans had any ulterior motives before?”

Grillby nodded, you could feel the slight movement against your palm. “Oh yes, plentiful.” Was it just you, or had his voice dropped an octave? He also spoke quietly, caressing the back of your hand with his thumb, slightly running it over your knuckles. Your high-maintenance brain suddenly flittered back to a memory, of having his lips move against your skin.

To distract yourself from the ghostly sensation, you tried to continue the conversation. “W-what did he do?”

A wisp of a voice replied. “Anything he thought would be amusing. Sometimes something simple, like arranging a prank of some kind, others…” A slight chuckle came from Grillby and you seriously needed something to cool your face, deduced by the way that sound made a heated tingle run down your spine.

“Let’s just say, him and Undyne are a frightening combo when it comes to playing cupid.” Oh, you see. Wait.

Him and Undyne playing cupid, forcing people together. Oh dear, please don’t let it be the case.

When you tensed a little at the thought, Grillby noticed, and let go of your hand. While you forthwith missed his heat, your mind was instead occupied with a dilemma. Biting one of your fingers, you twist and turn the possibility of this so-called meetup being an actual trap. One set by your mischievous friend and his companion, you couldn’t deny the possibility, he already knew about your feelings.

A warm hand gently removed your finger from your mouth, preventing you from breaking the skin. You looked up back at Grillby, he was smiling, a gentle smile that showed some of his pointy teeth. He usually never made them visible, but you thought that each time he did was precious, since it made him look charming and slightly adorable. You really, really wanted to kiss him on that cute mouth, but resisted.

It would be so easy though, just leaning forward, exploring how those lips would feel on top of yours.

ARGH. Just stop it!

To stop yourself from any further delirious thoughts, you stood up again, making him release you. You shot him a – somewhat – confident smile, although you were pretty sure that he could see that you were feeling slightly unraveled. “I’m alright, just thought of something I also have to talk to Sans about. I’ll try and go to the cooking class, meeting Undyne sounds like a blast.”

He just nods, though you can see that he’s not entirely convinced. To ease him, you reached over to run your fingers through the flames on top of his head. They felt warmer than usual, weird.

And so, the rest of the day passed by with you relentlessly being bombarded by stupid puns from Sans. Leaving you too mentally exhausted to really help out at the bar. Therefore, when Grillby headed down to go to work, you actually stuck behind, telling him that you felt a little groggy. While that had the opposite than the intended effect. (He started insisting that he should just close down the bar to take care of you) You however, finally managed to coax him out of the door by telling him that you just needed rest. You didn’t know if monsters felt mentally exhausted easily, so you didn’t want to admit that the whole arrangement with Sans was actually making you a bit nervous.

The three of you hadn’t actually decided on a specific date yet, since Sans had to gain the approval from both his brother and Undyne before you were allowed to attend. Though you doubted that it would be hard for him to get it, since his brother loved challenges and the small skeleton probably had some plan that he’d already shared with Undyne. Guessing by the bet they had going in any case.

You dozed on the couch for a while, watching some of the various TV-shows running on the many channels. At some point, you felt your brain cells start to disintegrate from the sheer stupidity of the comedy-show you were currently watching, by then you turned off the TV, just settling on maybe listening to some music on your phone. Though since you didn’t really feel like exercising the energy needed to actually reach for the device, you just ended up half-sleeping on the couch.

The next time you woke, you felt the gentle motion of Grillby shaking you awake. Oh, he was already back, how weird. You felt so tired though, so mentally exhausted after these past few days that you couldn’t really reach full wakefulness.

You tried to sit up, finding out that the room was spinning. You almost collapsed against Grillby, who in response just sighed, though you could hear the crackle of his flames acting up. Similar to when he felt stressed, or worried about something. However, before you could think too much of it, you felt his arms wrap around you, gently lifting you from the couch.

You were carried, half asleep, into the bedroom. Here, he placed you on the bed and pulled the covers up over your shoulders. You didn’t sense much of this, since you were practically asleep already. You slept heavily, not really dreaming as much as feeling yourself suspended in a space made of darkness, you didn’t fear it, just reveled in the comfort it provided your tired mind and body.

The next day, you felt more rested than you had in a long time. Grillby was still asleep beside you, and you took a few moments to watch him as you fully woke. Okay, maybe you snuggled a little closer to him, it was a small bed after all. Or so you told yourself as you hopelessly tried to justify your actions.

After permitting a nice handful of minutes to pass in the heat of your friend, you finally coaxed your body to sit up and shuffle into the kitchen. Grabbing some cereal and milk to eat for breakfast, it wasn’t anything as good as the stuff Grillby cooked, but you couldn’t always make him prepare food for you when he had his own busy schedule to tend to.

It took a while before the man himself emerged from the bedroom while yawning, clearly not fully awake yet. When he saw you, he sauntered over to pull out the chair beside you, sitting down. He spoke, voice seemingly still a little weary from his sleepy state.

“…I talked to Sans at the bar yesterday.”

You nodded at him while chewing on another mouthful of the cereal. He yawns again, stretching backwards slightly as he does; you can see the lower part of his belly from under the rim of his shirt. Somebody save you, because you swore that you glimpsed a pair of abs hidden underneath the fabric.

You swallowed your mouthful. “Oh yeah? Did you decide on a day for the cooking-lesson?”

Propping his elbow onto the table, he rested his chin on his palm. Humming something you read as a confirmation, he dug out a piece of paper with the date written on it. You grabbed your phone on the table and typed the numbers into it, so that you wouldn’t forget. How your mind was all over the place lately, it was a likely possibility that the exact time would easily exit your memory.

After making sure that your phone had saved it, you tucked it back into your pocket and concentrated on wolfing down the remaining contents of your bowl. Grillby just sat passively beside you, apparently having a hard time waking this morning. When you were going to go and wash your utensils, you notice that he’s nearly nodding off, resting his cheek on his propped-up hand and slightly dozing.

You couldn’t resist letting out a small laugh, which of course made him snap out of the daze.

“Do you want to sleep a little longer?”

He shook his head dismissively at the suggestion, rubbing his eyes as to stay awake. He had to be pretty tired if he could nod off as easily as that. Maybe last night had been busy? Oh no, maybe you should’ve gone and helped him instead of staying at home.

You tentatively walked over to wrap your arms around his shoulders, pressing your cheek against the back of his head. “It’s because I wasn’t there to help, isn’t it?”

You can feel him relax slightly at your touch, aw. “…I’m fine.”

Even if he tried to press that it’s no issue, you couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, since you’d probably ditched him on one of the busiest nights this week. “I’m sorry.” Even if you know that apologizing wouldn’t make him more rested, you felt the need to anyway.

Grillby remains silent, and you read it off as exhaustion and stubbornness, as not to accept your apology, since he didn’t like that you were trying to say that your health was worth less than a day’s work. You still felt remorseful though.

Giving him another slight squeeze, you released him and walked over to finish washing the dishes. An odd atmosphere filling the space between the two of you.

The feeling of displacement continued to bother you afterwards, and the day when you were going to cook together with Papyrus and Undyne rolled around without a solution as to why.

The two of you we’re quietly walking side by side, luckily, it wasn’t a long way to go. The skele-brothers house seemed open and welcoming and you could spot Papyrus already cooking away in the kitchen window. You waved, as to gain his attention and was met with the usual eager display of energy. It didn’t take long before the front door burst open, with the tall skeleton excitedly waving you inside. You really liked Papyrus’ child-like personality, even if his voice could be on the border to loud.

While putting away your coats and boots, the tall skeleton gave you one of his usual greetings.

“I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WELCOME YOU TO OUR PLEASANT HOME, JUST IN TIME FOR OUR COOKINGLESSON TO COMMENCE!” Alright, sometimes you kind of wished that Papyrus had a volume down button, but you supposed that it would break one his greatest (snort) characteristics.

Okay that was dumb, the other brothers humor had seemingly rubbed off on your inner monologue. Speaking of the bonehead, he didn’t seem to be present in either the kitchen nor the living room, though even if you couldn’t see him, you couldn’t deny the possibility of him listening in on your conversation.

You would have to be careful.

When you were done making sure that the oldest brother wasn’t lurking about and turned around to listen to the youngest’s long winding explanation as for what the four of you were going to be cooking. Spaghetti, obviously. You saw a blur of _something_ blue out the corner of your eye, before Papyrus was tackled to the floor. His head locked under the arm of another monster, blue from toe to fin tip. You reminisced on the fish-puns that Sans had been bugging you with, and they suddenly made a lot more sense.

Undyne, furiously giving Papyrus a through noggin, seemed just as energetic as Grillby had described. Perhaps even more as she actually managed to dominate the wrestling match she had going with Papyrus. You hoped that she’d like you, if not, well. It wouldn’t be a pleasant night in any sense of the word. She looked strong enough to snap your spine with one hand.

So occupied with battling Papyrus, she first spotted you and Grillby when Papyrus was pathetically submitted under the crook of one her arms. She smiled, displaying all of her razorsharp teeth.

“Yo Grillby, Human! Sorry about that! I’d told this nerd not to start cooking before you guys came and since he ignored my orders, he’s getting punished!” Papyrus was still helplessly locked within her hold as she stood, dragging him with. Sauntering over to shake your hand, Undyne made sure to do the greetings. Even re-introducing Papyrus to you, despite Papyrus’ complaint “UNDYNE WE ALREADY KNOW EACH OTHER YOU DON’T HAVE TO- OWIE! YOU PROMISED NO MORE NOGGIES!”

You certainly felt the bones in your hand being ground together as you returned the greeting. She seemed nice enough and you had hope for a moment, that she actually wasn’t in league with the other skeleton. She seemingly didn’t extend the same handshake to Grillby, perhaps because they already knew each other, then that hopefully meant it would be your only experience with her grip almost breaking your poor hand. 

You were lead by the duo, into the stocked kitchen filled with various ingredients – worriedly wondering if they were expecting to use all of this – with just enough clear spacing for the chopping boards and the stove. You were sure that Grillby wouldn’t permit you to go anywhere near the burners today, so you just resigned yourself to being the chopper of your odd group.

Confirming this, Grillby grasped onto your shoulder and halted your progression into the kitchen, making sure that you heard his silent plea as not to take any risks. In reply, you just smiled at him and placed your hand shortly on top of his before you continued to listen to the lengthy explanation the pair was spewing about making something as simple as spaghetti. Some parts worried you a little, like smashing the tomatoes like they were your worst enemy or turn the heat up to the same degree as your boiling rage. You were definitely staying away from the stove.

When they started going on about the different ‘positions’ your little group would be working in, you volunteered to cut the vegetables into pieces. Undyne approved of this and told you eagerly to mince the offended greenery into the same state that you would wish to see your arch nemesis. Not really bearing such hate towards anyone, you just settled with attempting to chop it without cutting any of your fingers.

Well you managed to dodge the possibility pretty efficiently by the time you’d finished off half of the tomatoes, though when Undyne stealthily appeared beside you and leaned in to whisper smugly in your ear, you were dangerously close to losing your pinky. “So, I hear from the most excellent source that you’re pining for Grillby, punk.”

You hissed out a swear, and gently placed the knife on the kitchen surface. “Is maybe that ‘source’ going to be here tonight?” A meager hope, it’d been so small that perchance Sans hadn’t made you come here just to use it as a setup. Well, that hope was all about busted.

When you look up at Undyne, she gives you a thumbs-up. Oh god no. “Don’t worry human, we’ll help you with your little ‘problem’.” She even did the quotation marks with her fingers.

You raised a questioning eyebrow and she cackled a little, obviously very entertained by your predicament. “I’m talking about the weird silence between you and Grillby. Even if he isn’t usually chatty, we’ve heard that Grillby is pretty talkative when you’re involved.” You blush a little at the thought, was he?

Undyne grasped onto your upper arms and pulled you closer, obviously not permitting you to have your mind straying from the current subject. “So, what happened and how to we get the two of you back onto the love-train?”

You were looking into a single eye, the other covered by a simple eyepatch, intimidated by her sudden display of intensity you froze. “Uhm… I honestly don’t know?” Which was the honest answer since you didn’t know exactly why he’d started turning more quiet. “Maybe I did something wrong?” But at this, Undyne just shook her head.

“Naw kid, from what my informant tells me, there’s no way that he’d turn like this just because of something minor.” She flashed her teeth in a wide grin. “I think something’s been happening in paradise.”

But before you could interject with something that denied her statement, Grillby and Papyrus re-entered the kitchen. You wondered about where they’d gone, until you saw who they were dragging with them.

Oh, no.

Sans.

“HELLO AGAIN HUMAN, THE GREAT ME WITH GRILLBYS ASSISTANCE, FINALLY MANAGED TO CONVINCE SANS TO COME DOWN AND JOIN US!” Papyrus is halfway carrying his brother and when your eyes met, you swore that you saw the lazy skeleton wink at you. Like he’d planned all of this out, you felt yourself slightly panic. You should probably prepare yourself mentally for a catastrophe or something out of the same chord. Honestly, you wouldn’t be surprised if they burned down the house, just so that Sans could throw around fire-related puns.

Ah okay, you were kind of exaggerating there. Hopefully.

Though with the full crew gathered together, the mood somewhat lightened. Sans is joining you in your task of dismembering innocent greenery, while Undyne and Papyrus join Grillby at the stove with him struggling to hide his attempts at turning down the heat. Sans surprisingly, was actually doing what he was supposed to, and you suspected it was planned so that he were able to throw as many awful puns about your crush as possible in your direction.

Sneaky skeleton.

After several near-disasters, everyone sat down at the table to eat some of the weirdest spaghetti you’d ever tasted. While it wasn’t inedible, it certainly held some… unique ingredients that you could’ve sword that you’d never seen come near your chopping board. Were those. Anchovies? You were certain that the intended result should’ve been pasta Bolognese, but there you were, eating some mutated version which included various unidentifiable – hopefully – consumable ingredients.

After one particularly weird forkful of the stuff, you felt something press back up your throat and after finally convincing it to stay down, you shot a look a Grillby as to see how he was holding up. Just to discover that he’d done the same with you, and your eyes met his behind his glasses.

Both of you froze.

And then you couldn’t resist laughing. Papyrus and the rest were eyeing you oddly as both you and Grillby chuckled over each your own plate of pasta. Suddenly, the weird tension was broken and you felt relief course through your veins. Whatever had made Grillby act the way he did, dissipated as you both tried to forcibly choke your laughs, to no avail. Sans was looking at you like he’d just figured something out and Undyne and Papyrus was staring at the two of you like you’d just dropped down from the moon.

Oh. That must’ve been the first time they heard his laugh.

That just makes it all the more amusing and it takes you a little while before you can fully calm down. A last snicker escaping you before you pick up the battle with the dinner on your plate.  

After finishing the less-than-pleasing dish, you all chatted back and forth, as you went into the kitchen to take care of the dishes. While their dishwasher was broken, (You suspected the story behind that somehow included Undyne and Papyrus, almost certain it would be confirmed) Grillby and you were forced to retreat back into the living room while Undyne and Papyrus washed the dishes, with Sans just lazily overseeing the whole process.

When dumping your mentally exhausted butt down on the couch, you felt Grillby settle beside you. He sat closer than the couch strictly required, but you didn’t mind as it was a sign that he was fully past whatever thing that had been making everything between the two of you so painfully awkward.

You shot him a smile as he leaned back, seemingly relaxing a bit more in your presence than when the nosy group was hanging about. You could see him exhale softly, with his hand seeking yours to squeeze it approvingly in a way that told you that he was congratulating you for handling it thus far.

While the gesture spoke volumes about how he’d noticed your discomfort, you couldn’t stop yourself from blushing a little at the contact. Dang it, crushes were really a big bother and made almost everything you did embarrassing. You wished that just this tiny of a touch wouldn’t send your pulse running and turn your face red, it had removed the casualness to these actions, made your mind overanalyze every single gesture to a point where you almost just wanted to _do_ something. Even if you didn’t know where ‘doing something’ would lead you.

By then, you snapped out of your train of thought as the group came over to sit with you, Undyne and Papyrus joining you on the couch with Sans lazed back into a beanbag that you were certain hadn’t been there just a few minutes ago. You supposed teleportation had its benefits.

With the addition of the excited Papyrus and the strong Undyne, Grillby ended up almost pressed flush against your side. Undyne’s fault, no doubt. You shot her a look and she just replied by winking, well kind of winking, with her one eye. Ok maybe she just blinked but you swore that it had been a wink.

You and the others chatted a bit back and forth as Papyrus put on another one of Mettaton’s movies, with a low volume, you didn’t pay much attention to the action on the screen. Grillby was still covering your hand with his, as his arm was pretty much trapped between the two of you. This was a merry gather, your crush, the pair who mischievously undoubtedly planned to force you and said crush together, and finally the sweet guy who didn’t pay attention to much more than the robot on the screen.

Then something hit you. As far as you’ve been able to tell, this was a really odd group, even by monster standards. In one of the breaks between when Sans, Papyrus and Undyne would chatter, you asked the question that had been bugging you in the back of your mind.

“How did all of you guys meet?”

Grillby turned to look at you, breaking off the conversation he’d held with Sans. Undyne and Papyrus did the same and looked first at you, then at Grillby.

Undyne scoffed. “Grillby! You haven’t told them the whole story yet?!” When Grillby shook his head dismissively, she scowled and leaned out so that you could make eye contact with her. “Well better late than ever, huh punk? Sit your ass down and let me tell you the awesome tale of Frisk ending up freeing us all from the underground.”

Well considering the fact that you were already sitting, you were all ears.

You didn’t even notice the slight distress that Grillby was emitting from his seat beside you. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "So, chapterlengths huh? Damn good to know that I keep on making them longer and longer isn't that right guys *looks into the sunset* I just wished that it didn't take me almost three weeks to spit out each chapter... Ah well! Moving on! I hope you guys don't mind reading some lovestruck reader and cupid Sans and Undyne, cuz that's pretty much what you're gonna get! ;3c"
> 
> Ass: "On another note, I'm sorry that there isn't much happening in terms of development in this chapter, but I hope that you guys will like it nonetheless! <3 your comments and kudos are really what keeps me going! I feel like crying each and every single time I see them (/;w;)/ thank you!"


	5. Tales, Snow, Damage and Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tales continues and you learn something you'd never expected.

While Undyne narrated the dramatic tale of Frisk venturing into the underground and basically flirted their way past every monster they met, you couldn’t resist sitting on the edge of your seat as she started getting to the parts that included your friends. She also moved down onto the floor so that you could sit eye-to-eye. It was fascinating how different they’d been by the time. However, without you noticing, Sans had continued shooting you nervous glances every once in a while, and Grillby, had increasingly started to emit displeasure as the tale continued as all of the hostility towards the small child had been revealed.

You didn’t notice it much, until Undyne reached the part where Frisk had entered the large corridors that led to the throne room and the hidden alcove where the coffins with the children’s bodies were kept, that you finally saw how tense your companion had turned. You tentatively reached over to squeeze his hand, only to find him jump slightly at the contact and you quickly retracted yourself from him, afraid that you’d pushed some boundary.

Undyne had continued on with the tale and was nearly at the end, when she mentioned that all of the monsters had blacked out at some point and then, all of a sudden, the barrier had been ripped down and everyone was free. It was quite a tale, though some parts worried you.

“So, these six kids? Asgore just… Killed them?” Suddenly everyone tensed, Sans and Papyrus wasn’t meeting your gaze and Undyne was pointedly sinking her teeth into her lower lip, worry apparent in her roughened features.

Sighing, she replied; “…Yeah, it’s not a good thing he did. But he deemed it necessary, since it was everyone’s last hope for ever seeing the surface again.”

Then she also turned away, regret lingering in her voice “’m sorry punk, probably shouldn’t have told you that.” She scratched the back of her head, avoiding your eyes.

Oh no, did they think that the actions that the King disgusted you? Something he’d thought was their only hope of gaining freedom. They feared that you’d judge them based on the actions of a single individual within their community, especially someone as powerful as the king.

But you didn’t. “No, no Undyne, it’s alright, you weren’t involved in it.” You leaned forward to place your hand on top of hers, trying to reassure her that you didn’t think any less of her, or any of the others for that matter. Past actions were exactly that, in the past, and they didn’t have the right to change the value your new companions meant to you.

When she finally met your eyes again, and saw no prejudice in your face, she bared another one of those wide grins that showed off all of her teeth and you were pulled into the most back-breaking hug you’d ever encountered, most of the air squeezed out of you as Undyne’s arms tightened around your sides.

“I knew I liked you punk!” Suddenly, you could also feel Papyrus’ arms wrap around you from behind, applying plenty of pressure to make that last bit of air escape your lungs, leaving you literally breathless. “OH HUMAN I THANK YOU, YOU ARE A TRUE FRIEND!”

“heh, thanks bud. that really means a lot coming from somebody who wasn’t involved.” You saw Sans shooting you an approving look from his placement on the beanbag. A shine in his eyes that you could only read as contentment and relief, he must’ve been just as worried as the others.

Had this been what Grillby flinched over? That he feared that you’d think after the whole tale, that the monsters must still be the same. That you were fearful of _him_ , of all of them.

It was quite the opposite. While you understood his worry, you also felt hurt that he hadn’t trusted enough in you to believe that you wouldn’t change your opinion of him or his friends, just because of the past. Something that happened maybe five or six years ago by now.

By the time that you’d maybe been missing air a little too long, Sans managed to convince the others to break off their hug. “hey Paps, Undyne. you might want to let go of them, they’re getting a little _light headed_.” Of course, he had to use a pun to get his point across. There was no point to Sans without puns, even if they made you wince at the quality.

Though it did manage to hint towards your complaining lungs. They released you with each their own apology and hoisted you up to place you back onto the couch. It took you a few deep breaths to fully remove the dizziness while the pair was basically holding you up by your arms (height difference and your jelly-like legs you supposed) and dumped your butt back onto the cushions.

When you were deposited safely, they went back to their own respective seats and Papyrus resumed the movie that had been interrupted by Undyne’s story. By the time a few minutes had ticked by, and you had relaxed some. You felt strong arms wrap around your waist, pressing you up against Grillby.

He was applying more strength than usual, forcing you to press your nose into the crook of his neck as he was turned towards you. Hearing a hushed “Thank you.” spoken by your ear. You awkwardly snuck your arms around his frame, trying to return the embrace. Closing your eyes and reveling in the comfort you could provide your friend, now that you knew about the underground, you figured that he’d feared your reaction to it all.

You were glad that you could help ease his mind a little. However, the tender moment was broken, as Undyne whispered to Sans “Look at those lovebirds! That’s so cute!” or more like half-yelled it across the room, but in either case you pushed Grillby slightly. Getting the hint and matching you by flushing slightly himself, Grillby pulled away. Though the rest of the movie he wouldn’t release your hand, occasionally squeezing it. You also responded by leaning your head on his shoulder, that was actually rather comfortable and you didn’t feel much like moving as the five of you finished watching the weird movie.

Really, even you knew that some of the stuff you were watching was just pure bull. Nevertheless, Papyrus was so engrossed in the story and since you couldn’t bear to break his itty bitty children-like heart, just because you cringed at the scenography every five minutes. Therefore, you just sucked it up and tried to pay more attention to the physical contact you held with your friend, crush, companion, whatever- than the actual movie.

It was actually quite relaxing.

When he started running his thumbs over your skin, you experimentally turned your hand, palm up, and weaved your fingers together. He didn’t react at first, just letting it happen and you spent a few minutes worrying if you went a little past his zone of comfort when it wasn’t just the two of you. But your worries were baseless, as he encouragingly tightened his fingers intertwined with yours. The two of you sat like this for the remainder of the movie, until the credits rolled and Papyrus eagerly started applauding the TV. Guess he really liked it, not that you paid that much attention to the horrid screenplay.

Though it was a little embarrassing when Sans gave you a look, clearly telling you that he’d noticed your little move, making you blush again. When Undyne also spotted you, there was a bit too many coy people in the room and you unwillingly released Grillby’s hand as you stood and fake-stretched. Telling the others that you were a little tired, it was the best excuse you could come up with at the time, you told them that you would probably like to head home soon. While Undyne and Sans didn’t buy it, Papyrus started apologizing for keeping you for so long and offered to lead you home. You declined, happily telling him to enjoy himself for the rest of the evening and that you would just be going home, which was fairly close by.

As if sensing your discomfort, Grillby slowly stood. Pressing a palm against your lower back in assurance that he’d be going with you and nodded at Sans in explanation, you saw the skeletons eye light up in mischief. To prevent whichever comment or pun had come to the bonehead, you tried to quickly escape outside before he got to you.

It didn’t work.

While putting on your jacket, Papyrus hugged you goodbye for the third time and when you were placed back vertically onto the floor, Sans was there.

He was grinning widely as he gave you the dumbest advice yet; “Kid, just take me up on this. Keep _cool_ when you finally do it, it might help you in the long run. Getting all _hotheaded_ won’t make it any easier, just take this from this old bag of bones.”

Winking at you as you exited the door, you already felt an incoming message vibrate in your pocket. You didn’t want to think about what kind of innuendos the skeleton would toss your way, so the phone stayed harmlessly untouched in the back of your pants for entirety of the walk home.

Despite the chill of the wind that you had felt so intensely on the way there, you didn’t notice it at all as Grillby was walking right by your side, providing plenty of heat to block out most of the freezing cold. Oh, how you’d missed this and you hadn’t even noticed. But despite the gentle heat, your fingers and face still froze when you were about halfway the way back. You stiffly stuffed your icicle hands in your pockets and tried to hide your nose under the edge of the jacket. It helped, somewhat.

By then, you feel a nudge on your arm. Looking over to figure out what was touching you, you found Grillby holding out his hand to you. Alright, now the temperature of your face was definitely not an issue, as you hesitantly fished your hand out of your pocket and intertwined it with his. It was very warm and comfortable, and you noticed how nicely his hand fit with yours. Now you were stuffing your face deeper into the collar of your jacket, intending to hide your furiously blushing face in the fabric, as he reassuringly squeezed your hand.

You went home like that, walking hand in hand whereas you were unable to even shoot a single glance in Grillby’s direction. It wasn’t awkward again per se, but you were pretty dang sure that your feelings were literally written on your face.

The walk was mercifully short, and you released his hand to unlock the front door upon entering, stripping off your various layers of clothing that had helped keep the cold at bay. You contemplated taking a nice warm shower to ease the stiffness out of your body, you’d been more stressed recently and your back was starting to protest against it. But before you were able to decide down, Grillby enveloped you in another embrace, which felt more intimate than the ones he’d given you previously to ward off the heat.

Again, you heard his voice. Low, husky and filled with emotion, a wisp so low that you otherwise wouldn’t have picked it up if there’d been any further distance between the two of you. “…Sometimes I can’t believe that you’re real.”

You could feel an uninvited heat pooling in your body. “R-really?” He hummed confirmingly in your ear, but doesn’t elaborate. As he released you and stepped away, leaving you in a confused stupor.

Why did that just happen?

You had no clue as to the sudden affection that Grillby had portrayed towards you, but you just shrugged it off, not wanting to risk reading too much into it and develop false hopes. Therefore, you just proceeded to follow Grillby over onto the couch and sat down beside him, as he turned the TV on to some random sitcom and you prepared yourself for a few hours of brainless information before going to bed.

What you hadn’t expected was that after an episode or two, Grillby would weave your fingers together again and lean down to rest his head on your shoulder, mimicking what you’d done at the skeletons place. You felt yourself freeze slightly, unsure of what the sudden increase in intimacy could mean. You weren’t certain that he even saw it as intimate, he might’ve just been doing it because you’d done the same a few hours prior.

But that doesn’t keep your mind from becoming overly observant of the tiniest of movements. Like the way his fingers occasionally tightened around yours, or when he shifted his head a little, apparently finding your shoulder comfortable. It was hard for you to not notice it, but when another episode ended, you could hear a slight sound coming from your companion. Oh. My. God. Was he asleep?

He was. That was so adorable, uh ahem-, not right now brain.

But alas, you didn’t know how to get out of this situation without waking him up, and you couldn’t dig out the resolution to actually try and do it. So, while you try and figure out how to possibly transport him into the bedroom without waking him (You envied Sans’ teleportation) you found yourself also growing sleepy and really start contemplating if you should just wake him and get him to stand up so you could sleep. But you dismissed it just as quickly as the thought popped up.

By then, you got a stupid idea, why not just sleep on the couch tonight. While you silently applauded the silly sleep-driven idea, you tried to sort of slide down onto the couch, so that Grillby wouldn’t be roused. It sorta worked, as you did it slowly and you deliberately made sure to turn yourself to that you would end on your back. Which resulted in Grillby ending up placed between your legs with his head on your chest. No biggie.

Well atleast it wasn’t anything your sleepy self worried about. Wrapping your one arm up around his shoulders, as to prevent him from falling off, you were so certain that you wouldn’t regret this course of actions the following day.

Have you ever mentioned that you had a record of making the worst decisions while sleepy?

As you groggily prodded open an eyelid, you saw the familiar light cast in front of you. But something seemed odd about it. What had woken you? You didn’t feel rested, so it couldn’t have been that your body had roused you naturally. That was when you noticed the close proximity between you and Grillby, and the way he still laid pressed up against you, your legs tangled and- and-.

One of his hands had frozen, apparently in the midst of gently caressing your face. That was what had woken you up, since you were a light sleeper and all, even the slightest of touches was enough to rouse you. As you tried to focus on Grillby, what you saw was his face covered in a blazing white layer of flames, embarrassedly caught in the act or something the like.

However, since your tired self hadn’t fully registered the facts of your situation, you just stared at him.

He retracted his hand, still flushing a clear white, and seemingly couldn’t find any excuse to explain his actions. He was still positioned between your legs, but had seemingly prodded himself up on his elbow to get enough leverage to free his other hand.

You blinked a few times, trying to wake. A sleepy smile spread on your lips despite it all. “Slept alright?”

Now it was his turn to look at you like you’d just dropped down from the moon, he stared at you for a long moment, seemingly not understanding your words. You felt like you should elaborate.

Pulling your arm free from being squeezed in between your and the couch, you sat up a little, so that you would have less double-chins as you looked down at him. You rubbed slowly your eye, trying to work out the icky crust you could feel settled there. “You looked so tired last night, didn’ feel like waking you.”

After a minute, his shoulders started to shake, clearly holding back his amusement. He eventually relents and you could feel the vibrations travel through his body as he silently laughed, muffling the sound by pressing the back of his hand against his mouth. You couldn’t stop yourself from smiling a little wider in response, not entirely sure of why he found your words entertaining. Nevertheless, nothing that made him break his calm exterior like that, necessarily needed an explanation.

Still slightly flushed, he was still smiling, displaying all of his teeth as he looked back up at you. He always looked so adorable when they were visible, as it was a sign that he was fully comfortable in your presence and you often felt compelled to return the trust in some manner. But never knew how.

As you got the remaining crust out of your eyes, you used both your arms to place yourself in a more vertical position. Well, it resulted in you halfway sitting up, while Grillby was still positioned between your legs and his face mere centimeters away from yours. Something unknown welled in your chest.

In an act pushed by your growing affection and not held back because of your groggy state, you leaned forward to press a kiss to his forehead.

You didn’t quite register what you’d done, until you felt your lips connect to a very heated surface.

And you certainly had your wakeup call by then.

Pulling back, you felt the shock settle in as your eyes met Gillby’s again. He was also stiff, staring unblinkingly at you. You took that as the cue to have pressed his boundaries a little too much.

“Sorry.” You apologized as he finally blinked once at you. Shooting him a shaky smile, you moved to leave the couch, dearly wishing that you hadn’t offended him. He grasped onto your wrist as you were hanging halfway off the cushions, halting your escape.

“…It’s alright.” It was reassuring to hear his voice, and even more that he wasn’t grossed out or anything. Now you could give him a more genuine laugh. “Good to know. I need to get off the couch in any case. I feel really sweaty and was thinking of taking a shower.” Half-truth, but not entirely false. You were feeling the stickiness that followed when you’d slept in your day-clothes and wanted to wash off the irritable feeling, so it was a good excuse as any.

Grillby just nodded and released you, and you proceeded to untangle yourself to head into the bathroom. When in there you could finally permit yourself to freak out. Ohmygoshwhatdidyoujustdo.

It took you a few days to completely settle down after your slipup, but since Grillby didn’t seem to be bothered by it and actually didn’t mention it at all. You relaxed and kept yourself under strict control afterwards regarding your affections. Overall, it was nice.

You continued to help out at the bar, and Sans maintained his endless teasing as he was now occasionally accompanied by Undyne and Alphys. They didn’t do much more than chat with you, but since you were now holding conversations with the couple, Sans took every chance he could get to intervene and with the rare support from Undyne, managed to turn you into a flushing mess because of their knowledge about your feelings.

Nothing too bad though, they were nice enough not to speak of it while Grillby was present, and sometimes you’d sit down for a while to actually catch up with them. Listening in on how the monster part of the town was fairing. Apparently, people were finally getting over their initial fear and started to honestly approach the monsters more openly, you rolled your eyes slightly at this, it only took them about six years. Yeesh. They were just proving what you already knew, that monsters hadn’t meant any harm to come to their human neighbors at all since they ascended to the surface.

Or so you’d thought.

It was one of the clearer days, where the signs of the snow disappearing was evident. Leaving little doubt that spring was hastily approaching and would most like bring some warmer weather than the previous years. You were out throwing some trash away in the container, it was a chilly morning though and you regretted not dressing more warmly before stepping outside. However, you just decided that the few meters you needed to clear wasn’t worth the extra effort to go back inside and grab your jacket.

As you lifted the gross burden from the ground and walked through the small puddles and slush covering the ground, you managed to reach the dumpster with little effort and happily dump the bag into its stinky interior.

When closing the lid, you noticed a bulky form sitting leaned up against the other side of the container. Worried if it might be somebody, you slowly walked over to crouch and have a closer look at them. They were covered in a moldy sheet, as it was cut into an improvised cloak and draped around them to cover their head and ward off the worst of the cold. You discovered that they were monster-kind, as you saw an appendage similar to a tail move underneath the cloth.

As you were about to ask if they needed help, you were interrupted by a shrill voice. A voice, like nails on chalkboard, like their vocal cords had been cut, but still functioned despite all.

“Human. They said they could bring _them_ back.”

Suddenly a claw shot out from the pile, grasping onto your neck and choking you as it rose. It was much larger than you’d thought, rising to a height close to two meters. They kept speaking, tone cutting into your eardrums.

“A human soul. Human. Human makes wrong.”

You were slung down onto the ground, their claw still pinning your neck and you could barely breathe. As the figure loomed above you, another clawed arm shot out to dig into your shoulder, this one was marred, the sharp edges chapped and dull as if it had been chewing on it. It scratched harshly at your shoulder, moving in to dig at your chest.

“Human, where’s the soul. _GIVE IT TO ME_!” It screeched at you, ripping through your shirt and skin with its broken nails, you wanted to scream.

And suddenly, something _extremely wrong_ happened. A dear existence was harshly ripped out from your core, and a jarring discomfort shot through your body; as something that was not supposed to be gone was dragged out from you. Everything you could see was suddenly monochrome and you froze at the intense sense of _wrong_ that your body was screaming at you. Your soul. Soul.

Your eyes was focused on the only thing seemingly still holding onto any sort of color in your darkened vision, a green cartoonish heart that were rising from your chest. The thing that was not supposed to be worn outside of your body, had been literally pulled out of you.

As the realization of the existence that was your soul sunk in, you were roughly slung back towards a wall.

“There it is. They are going to be alright. No body can hurt them anymore. They will be so proud.” The monster chanted as it gazed at your exposed soul. Your core.

You had to get away.

But you couldn’t.

You were frozen in place, some unknown force keeping you in place and preventing you from moving away from the spot by the wall. Your soul was fluttering around about half a meter in front of you, displaying your clear panic.

Then, something struck out at your soul, damaging it and you felt the pain like your body was electrified, spasming and curling in on yourself you felt bile rise in your throat from the pain. As the attack halted, something happened, no, appeared in your head. Suddenly, your mind was filled with only three possible options of what to do next, Attack, Act or Mercy. You didn’t understand.

As you sobbed, your subconscious moved to the only thing you dared. Begging for mercy.

“P-please. _Stop_.”

The second you finished the sentence, another attack dug into the core of your soul. No hesitation in its target, the monster clearly wished to split it apart and you feared what transpired if they managed to achieve their goal.

Nevertheless, you couldn’t make yourself actually lash out at the insane being. So, when the choice was available to you again, you could still only go with Mercy.

A hoarse laugh echoed through the alley. “Easy prey. Human. They will be so, so happy.”

You knew, or could feel, that you wouldn’t last long like this. As another round of whatever sick game was played out between yourself and the mutilated monster passed, your soul now weakly floating in front of you, clearly not able to handle much more.

Was this it? Were you going to die like this?

The monster was elated at your meek performance, clapping its deformed claws together in a mock applause. “Not long my dear. Human is almost finished. Time to bring them back.”

Whimpering out another pathetic plea, you feared that last strike.

But before the monster managed, a wall of flames appeared between you and the monster’s incoming attack. Startled back, the monster screeched out its frustration of being halted and turned to look at what had prevented it from landing the final hit.

It was Grillby.

His flames high and tall, he didn’t speak a word as he resolutely strode towards you. Though you noticed him flinching slightly when he saw your weakened soul, you couldn’t read his emotions as you used to. That in itself frightened you.

The monster lunged for him, shrieking. Its back haunches permitting it to move faster than you’d thought possible. As its focus was removed from your soul, you could suddenly move. But as you tried standing, your legs gave in and you fell back against the wall, praying for Grillby’s safety as you saw him dodge away from the incoming swipe. You begged your dead legs for support to get away from this whole situation.

While the monster was fast, it’s reactions were limited by the cloak and the obvious mutation in its upper left half of the body and that gave Grillby an obvious edge as he took a fighting stance, fists raised to protect his chest and face, feet placed to gain him the most balance and leeway.

The first hit struck a heartbeat later, Grillby landed with deadly efficiency a fist on the throat of the monster, cutting off the gruttal voice as it coughed and harked.

Fighting on, Grillby made frighteningly short work of the very same monster that had left you weak and helpless. Only a few rips and scratches landed on him, tearing his uniform, but never managing to damage him further.

While only a handful of minutes could have passed, your fear and worry for your friend made the fight feel like the fight lasted eons. Until the monster finally relented, collapsing back onto its back haunches and trying to crawl backwards to escape the wrath of your companion.

“I was only trying to save them. They have to come back! I won’t be here anymore. They’ll be back and I’ll have them back and-“ the monster blabbered, trying to convey its intentions to your guardian.

But Grillby harshly cut them off by grasping onto their cranium, igniting them. The monster reacted to the intense pain and lashed out to bury one of its talons deeply into Grillby’s side. You called his name in a panic, but he just continued to apply his flames onto the body of the offender, devouring it with his magic. He didn’t even seem to notice his wound, only intent on erasing the existence of your predator.

There were only a small pile of ashes remaining when he finally halted his flames, you couldn’t make yourself move, couldn’t stand. Fear was still paralyzing your body as sobs raked down your spine; you hadn’t even noticed when you’d started crying.

Grillby brushed the dust off his hands, seemingly not fully calm after the encounter, but you couldn’t tell as his back was turned and you had no idea about what he might be thinking after displaying such obvious strength. You certainly didn’t know what to think. Terror froze your limbs, even if the monster was gone, the adrenaline and your instincts still screamed at you to run.

Your weak soul was also visible still, the discomfort from it being separated from you still pressuring on your mind. However, you paid it little attention as your focus was centered on your fiery friend, afraid of his reaction to seeing you in the state you were in. You tried to stand, to go over to calm your friend, but once again your body just screamed at you in protest, a low whimper escaped you, and you once again ended up on the freezing ground.

At the sound, Grillby spun around and finally made eye-contact with you. His glasses had disappeared sometime during the scuffle and you saw them widen at your state, more specifically, your soul. You didn’t register it, but suddenly he was by your side, brushing away some of the strands of your tattered hair to expose the clear choke and scratch-marks on your neck and shoulders. You shuddered a little under his touch, his hands were still a little warmer than usual, not enough to burn but still made you uncomfortable nonetheless.

The next moment, you felt those warm hands grasp onto your soul. While he was still hot, he was oh so gentle, very careful as not to risk harming you further. As his fingers made contact with the surface, you felt something. It didn’t hurt like the attacks had done. You were instead directly assaulted by emotions and sensations that didn’t belong to you, slight flashes of memories passed between you and Grillby, none staying still long enough for you to process them.

Then, your soul was back in your chest. Your vision returned to normal. You hadn’t realized how many different shades were hidden in the flames of your friend, how much you’d missed the nuances. You felt new tears stream down your face, this time they were from relief rather than fear, though they seemingly distressed Grillby all the same. He hurriedly cupped your face, checking for any other signs of trauma caused by the monster.

But you didn’t care about that, before he could register it, you’d wrapped your arms around his neck. Clinging to him for your dear life, you tried to keep yourself from completely breaking down over the experience. As your death-grip around him didn’t lessen, Grillby seemingly just wished for you to get away from this traumatic scene and lifted under your legs as to get you off the soaked and cold ground. He carried you into the backroom of the bar, kneeling down to place you down on the couch, you started to shake. You didn’t want to let go of him yet.

Grillby seemingly got the hint, luckily it was before opening time and no one was around. Therefore, he just settled with you in his lap, keeping one arm around your legs as the other reached up to wrap around your middle, giving you the comfort that you desperately needed.

It took a while before you fully calmed down, with Grillby gently whispering comforting words in your ear and stroking your back. When you finally managed to pry away your arms from their grip around his neck, he asked you about the circumstances regarding why the monster had gotten to you.

You told him, not expecting his reaction.

When you said that you’d walked over to crouch by the figure, he tensed, grapping one of your hands to halt your tale.

“You walked up to it?”

You didn’t understand the sudden anger in his voice. “Yeah, I was worried that they might’ve been hurt or sick.”

His flames started to turn a deep scarlet. “Did you not realize the danger?!” You heard a crackle, like something had snapped. “Not all monsters are like me and Sans, they will attack humans no matter if they’re good or not. They don’t care about the human if they can get a soul!”

You removed your gaze from his suddenly intense eyes, without his glasses, his emotions became more apparent through the blaze emitting from his whites. Right then, they gave off an almost blinding light.

“I-I didn’t know. I thought-“

But you were cut off. “Did you truly believe that all monsters are courteous?! That there would come no harm to you as long as it was a monster?”

“N-No I-I-I…” While you knew that his anger wasn’t specifically directed at _you_ , it was still more likely based on the incident as a whole. But it still frightened your already shredded nerves. You bit your lip, keeping quiet as you felt another wave of panic course through you. Really, you had been so naïve, so dumbly trusting of your monster friends to generalize it. You’d seen it was a monster and had dropped your guard, it was stupid, but you it was what you’d done.

Because of your impulsive action, your closest companion were fuming at you, undoubtedly questioning your reliability if you took such dumb risks.

Reflecting on it just made you feel more stupid. Tears once again pressed at the edge of your vision, as you were slowly making yourself upset again. You let out a pathetic whimper, the event still too soon for you to comfortably recall without being overwhelmed by the intense fear that had dug into your mind like a splinter. It was too sore, too painful.

You tried raising your eyes up to meet his, the light emitted by him blurred by the tears that threatened to spill.

“I-I’m _sorry_ Grillby…I di-didn’t think-” And there it was, you were crying yet again. Incoherent apologies spilling from you as you sobbed. You didn’t want Grillby to hate you, to see just how dumb and naïve you could be because of your stupid stubbornness to only judge by first-meeting impressions.

You didn’t want him to hate you.

Please don’t be the case. Please.

You treasured him too much.

As you wept, using your free hand to hide your eyes, you felt the heat that Grillby emitted lessen. However, your mind didn’t register much more than the quiet chant of ‘please don’t hate me’ you were playing over and over in your head, as you tried to suppress the tears that just didn’t stop falling. You thought that the same pathetic plea had perhaps escaped from your lips, as you suddenly heard Grillby crackle again.

Suddenly, your head laid on his shoulder, a kiss pressed to your temple as he cradled your form.

“How could I ever?”

The hand that was holding onto your wrist, moved to lace his fingers with yours and you could feel that he shook slightly as he did it. He had been scared too, probably frightened to bits that you might’ve gotten seriously hurt. His lips still lingered near your skin as he spoke.

“Don’t… Don’t be sorry for how you are.” Another kiss. “You didn’t know.” You had never heard him hesitate in his speech before.

You could feel him shakily exhale, the warm breath touching your skin and making you shiver. You were still sniffling a little, tears slowly trickling down your cheeks, but you had removed your hand from your face to latch onto Grillby’s shirt.

“…I almost lost you. The bare thought of it, I-“ He stopped speaking, and instead you could feel a slight shiver travel in his chest under your hand. You slowly moved your head from the crook of his neck, some unknown force pushing the need for you to see what expression he was displaying.

The very moment that your eyes connected with his, you, for the second time that very same day, could not read his expression. But this time, there was nothing in it that reminded you of fury, whatever it was, it left you breathless as you gazed into those clear whites. An unknown warmth bloomed in your stomach.

Grillby leaned slightly forward, closing the distance between the two of you and stopping halfway as if he couldn’t decide on what he wanted to do. His eyes were still transfixed with yours and you didn’t even dare blink for fear of breaking the moment, even if you didn’t know what it all meant. His free hand was stroking through your wet and filthy hair, assuring you that time hadn’t stopped despite your inability to move.

Apparent in making his final decision, Grillby leans forward to place his forehead upon yours. You could hear his shaky intake of breath as he spoke.

“…I love you too much to bear it.”

Huh?

Did he just?

No, that couldn’t be.

Was it really?

Every thought in your mind suddenly screamed at you, telling you that in fact yes, that had just happened and that you should pull your scattered conscious down from whatever plane it was on and tell the sweet elemental that you recuperated his feelings. Every nerve in your body was burning, or so it felt. Your face was practically beaming, unable to make your voice or mouth work the correct way, you just managed to bite your lip to prevent any half-finished stupidity from escaping.

He continued speaking, slight panic probable in his voice.

“I-I’m sorry, it’s… It’s surely not what you wished to know.”

Starting to pull away, you saw a plain blush igniting his features, making you certain in your assessment that you hadn’t heard wrong and he very much just confessed to you.

Before he could pull away further, you let go of his shirt to cup his cheek, making him jump slightly at the unexpected action. Confusion obvious in his eyes, you just sucked up all of the butterflies fanning up a storm in your stomach and leaned in to press your lips onto his forehead, lingering there for a few heartbeats before you moved back. Grillby’s hand was then almost uncomfortably clenching your hand within his; he was stunned, that much was apparent from his face once you were at a distance where you could look at him again.

Finally, your voice obeyed you. “I love you too Grillby.” It was uneven; obviously, you were extremely nervous and could literally feel your heart hammer against your ribcage. Nevertheless, you’d finally said it. The very words that had pressed at the back of your mind for several weeks on end.

It had been barely above a whisper but he’d seemingly heard it just as if you’d spoken as loudly as possible. His hand let go of yours to reach up and caress your face, disbelief plain in his features.

“…I’m not mishearing this.”

A weak smile passed your lips, “No.”

“You… You feel the same?”

Instead of answering right away, you grasped the hand that was absentmindedly resting on your cheek and brought it up to place a chaste kiss on his palm. You had wanted to do that for a while now, especially after the whole couch-incident. In a way, it was extremely pleasing.

“ _Yes_.”

Suddenly, you’re pressed flush in against Grillby, his strong arms wrapped around you with his head pressed to your neck. Though the gesture spoke volumes, the contact and strain that it applies to your wounds from the battle makes you wince. You pushed a little against Grillby’s grasp and he quickly loosened, probably guessing as to why you would want him to lessen his affections a little.

To be entirely honest, if you hadn’t been covered in scratches and sticky from the mud and other stuff on the ground when that monster forced you down, you would do a lot more than just hug him just then. But there would be time for that later, right that moment you desperately needed a shower and to treat those pesky wounds on your shoulders more than testing the waters of your sudden. Uh. Relationship. It was a relationship right?

Well whatever, you had plenty of time to figure it out. For now, a shower was your priority.

Grillby left you on the couch to go out and put up a sign explaining why the bar would be closed for tonight, it was a swift procedure and you guessed that it might’ve had something to do with magic. Like most other stuff you were unable to explain. When he re-entered to join you for your voyage back to the house, you noticed the hole in his shirt, where the talon had dug into his side. You hurriedly asked him if he was wounded, whereas he just assured you that if it were just something piercing his flames, then there would be no wound as long as it was not soaked. It calmed you some, if not all, knowing that Grillby couldn’t be damaged as easily as you.

When both of you were finally ready to walk the small distance back to the house, Grillby just scooped you up from the couch, not even permitting you to walk on your own. You squeaked, clinging to his torn dress-shirt as he continued to walk out of the building. The slight cold that littered in the air didn’t touch you in the slightest as you were putty in Grillby’s arms, just reveling in the heat he provided. Before you knew it, both of you were inside of the house, and you had to struggle for him to not just place you on the couch to keep you there, instead of actually be put down so that you could take a shower. You won, but just barely.

Finally tripping in under the steaming water, you couldn’t suppress a hiss from the many scratches marked on your shoulders and chest. A slight shiver going up your spine as you recalled the marred and mutated claws that the monster had shown, had there been something wrong with it?

You let your thoughts wander as you washed the dirt and grit off your sore skin, enjoying the way you felt remarkably more comfortable once you stepped out of the shower. You discovered that in your haste to get to the shower, you’d forgotten to grab some clothes.

Damn.

You had never encountered this dilemma before, and asking Grillby to go and grab some would be too embarrassing. So you resolutely grabbed the biggest and fluffiest towel available, which luckily covered your modest parts nicely and even went a nice bit down your thighs. Well you just prayed that Grillby wouldn’t look your way when you exited the bathroom and escaped into the bedroom to grab your clothes.

Peeking outside of the door, you saw that Grillby luckily wasn’t within sight. Hopefully, he was resting on the couch. You sneaked out, trying to be as quiet as possible on the soft carpet and dashed into the bedroom, closing the door behind you with the hand that wasn’t occupied by keeping the towel up. You quickly turned around to dash over to the dresser and fish out a shirt or something you could quickly pull over yourself. Preferably one of Grillby’s, just because you loved wearing them.

Apparently, you hadn’t really tried looked around the room when you entered, because when you turned around Grillby was standing there. Half-naked himself, frozen in the middle of putting on a non-ripped shirt. You could feel yourself flushing a bright red to match Grillby’s white as he were seemingly transfixed by you.

Woops.

Luckily, you hadn’t removed the towel, but it was still quite a sensitive situation you’d landed yourself in, considering the confession made just little over an hour ago. You re-directed your gaze (Surprisingly, it was quite a feat, but it confirmed that Grillby sported quite a nice body- okay that’s enough brain!) and just stood and awkwardly watched the water drip down onto the carpet from the wet strands of your hair. You heard an ‘fwoosh’ and suddenly Grillby was holding something out to you, it was a large hoodie, probably also one of his. He then pointed a thumb towards the door, quietly telling you that he would wait outside and then went to do so. As he exits the room, you can hear yourself internally screaming at your fuckup.

Hooh boy. That had been _close_.

You take a few moments to recover and then changed at such a high pace that you were surprised you didn’t get stuck or fall on your face. Quite a feat indeed. When you knocked onto the door, signaling that Grillby could come back inside if he wanted, you nervously went to sit back down on the bed. Fiddling with your phone, you prevented yourself from staring at Grillby as he re-entered the room.

As he did, you could feel the dip in the bed as he sat down beside you. His arms wrapping around you to pull you close, and you couldn’t resist snuggling close to him as you felt his comfortable heat against your back, a nice contrast to the cold water that clung to your still-wet hair. You abandoned your phone somewhere on the covers to wriggle around in Grillby’s grasp to face him, an impulsive desire to see if he was feeling the same sort of placidity as you.

When your eyes met his, you saw that he still hadn’t replaced the broken glasses from the scuffle, so you were left staring deeply into those serene whites that acted as his eyes. You felt your breath catch in your throat, and seemingly he also saw something in your features. Something that made him hoarsely whisper your name, a hot shiver spreading over your skin that felt like you were being set on fire.

His voice was hesitant. “…You’re absolutely certain?” Grillby moved his face a little closer, less than a few centimeters separating you. “I’m a monster, you’re really sure about all of… This?”

“Yes. Absolutely.” Your voice didn’t waver. You felt a smile spread on your lips, as if you knew that very moment, that everything was going to be fine and that you weren’t going to ever let go of this wonderful guy.

Crossing that last distance, you met his lips. While he had materialized them, probably in preparation for something like this, he still jumped slightly as you placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Lingering just long enough to feel the heat of those soft lips (Yes they were very soft and you could feel a slight flicker of flames travelling across them) transferring to your own before you pulled back.

You gave him a sheepish smile. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t even wait for your answer.”

And his lips were on yours again before you could barely register it. Pressing gently against yours, as if he was unsure if you might pull away. However, you just returned it with a similar care, running your fingers up through the flames on top of his head, playing with the texture you could feel between your fingers. Grillby slightly tilted his head and you could feel his lips press more urgently against yours; they were so warm and very delicate as they moved slightly against yours.

When you pulled away again, you felt a bit breathless and Grillby were seemingly in a similar state, you could feel his chest move against yours as he tried to calm down. His eyes stayed interlocked with yours, holding your gaze for a few moments.

Oh god, how could you not have seen this before? He wasn’t just a little in love with you, he was head over heels. Just like you. Both of your had been pining for each other without the opposite noticing.

It was just a little bit funny.

So you laughed, a small giggle escaping you as you were still within Grillby’s grasp. He shot you an odd look “S-sorry, it’s just-“ you snorted “I’ve just noticed that I’ve been in love with you for this long and I hadn’t noticed _anything_ that hinted that you felt the same way until today... It’s just a tiny bit hilarious.”

There, you abandoned your dignity, as you, in the arms of Grillby, couldn’t resist breaking into a dumb fit of giggles. Doubling over sideways onto the bed, you laughed even harder as Grillby just stared as if you had grown an extra eye.

Nevertheless, he snapped out of it and mimicked your fall, joining you on top of the covers. While you tried to calm down, he reached out, pulling you closer still as you recovered from your giggles, satisfied with the whole situation he just pressed a kiss into your crown and threaded his fingers through the strands. He waited for you to be able to speak comprehensibly again. When you finally quieted, Grillby just continued his motions, apparently not invested in hurrying with your relationship along, instead just enjoying being able to touch you freely. Your tired eyes slowly shut themselves at the sensation of his digits brushing through your hair, reveling in the nice and comfortable atmosphere surrounding the two of you.

As you laid there, you realized how lucky you were.

He loved you. Grillby loved you and had saved your life yet another time without wishing for anything in return, not even forcing the issue once he’d confessed.

Ah really. You had really struck gold with the alley you’d chosen, that had permitted you to meet this gentle and precious monster, involving you with others that you had never dreamed of and now loved like a family.

Truly, his arms had become your safe haven.

You felt like you could cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "Yaaasss, finally reached the confession and yet again the chapter managed to get like 1000+ more words than I'd expected it to. Well since all of your guys like it, I suppose it's not too bad ;3c since I immensely enjoyed writing every single word of it. So, I just gotta warn you guys that there will be one full chapter left and then two 'extras' which I say is more like 6.1 and 6.2 chapters instead of legit parts of the story... which may and may not include a few very intimate parts which I hope that all of you will enjoy!" 
> 
> Ass: "I also managed to stick to my two-week schedule, how's that fellas!!! Lemme know what you think and if there's anything with the grammar or stuff that I messed up since I don't have a beta anymore. Love ya all!!!"


	6. Movies, Bones, Frames and Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The continued paranoia you developed after the attack doesn't seem to let you be. Luckily, you're not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "So this has been a long way in the making (heh) and I really have to apologize for that, a lot of shit has been going down with me recently. Pre-exams, large amounts of assignments and the death of my 13year old dog hit me hard and took away most of my motivation to write anything longer than a few thousand words. Then the following adoption of a new puppy also demanded a lot of time from all of my familymembers, since puppies are very energetic and apparently likes to eat, scratch and chew everything (including my hands)." 
> 
> Ass: "So here is the last main-story chapter, 10579 words, two and a half months later. Enjoy."

”Shhh… Everything is going to be fine. You’re alright.”

Grillby gently held your form, cradling your head as he saw the tears suddenly streaming down your face. While you loved that he had returned your feelings and saved you once again, the memories of the terrifying encounter continued to haunt you for days on end. In the middle of the night, you would wake. Shaking and crying, phantom pains coursing through your nerves as you felt yourself rile up in panic, thinking in your half-asleep state that you were still in the alley. That the monster was still attacking your soul for some unknown purpose, killing you.

Every time you had one of these nightmares, Grillby would embrace you and whisper comforting words to you, waiting for you to calm down and then fetch something warm for you to drink. Today, it was chamomile tea with plenty of honey to sweeten it. Your hands shook as you carefully sipped the hot liquid, once again confirming that you were not still present in that cold alley and there was no chance of the monster ever approaching you again. That was something that Grillby had made sure of when he burned it to dust.

Speaking of that, you sometimes wondered if he regretted it. Well not like the whole ‘saving you’ thing, but more if he mourned his choice, if he might’ve wanted to spare the pitiful being. You pondered about it again as you sat in his lap while finishing up the delicious drink, he really knew you spot on with what you liked. You shifted slightly in his hold, with his face buried by your neck, you guessed that the late-night terrors and aftercare must be draining a lot of stamina from the fire elemental.

So you would wait with such questions until a later time where both of you were rested and calm, asking about it then would make it sound like an accusation. You didn’t want to make him agitated or feel guilty from the actions he took on the behalf of assuring your safety, that would just be horrible.

Downing the last bit of the calming mixture, you placed the cup on the nightstand and leaned back against Grillby’s chest, letting the last bits of fear fade from your mind. You felt his large hands rest on your abdomen, slack. He was clearly falling asleep while sitting, how adorable.

You intertwined one of your hands with his, pulling it up to press a kiss to his knuckles. At that, you sensed him shifting slightly behind you, rousing from the sudden contact as you continued to pepper his hand in light kisses.

Grillby pulled you closer and you felt him nuzzle his mouth to the nape of your neck, it tickled a little. You halted your display of affection, wanting nothing else but to go back to sleep with him by your side.

“Wanna sleep?” You asked with your voice already blurred by exhaustion. You felt a confirming hum vibrate against your neck and he moved to lay down. With no way or want to move away from him, you ended up with Grillby gently keeping you within his hold as he kept his face buried in your hair, his legs tangling with yours.

You fell asleep like that, Grillby’s presence keeping any further demons at bay as you dreamt.

After both of you had recovered after the incident, about a week had passed and many of Grillby’s patrons had voiced concern as to why the bar hadn’t been open at any time during that period. Luckily, most respected Grillby’s explanations as he told them that it was just some personal reasons that had kept him busy. Others needed a little persuasion to leave the subject, but relented when he still dismissed their inquiries. 

Sans wasn’t any of those.

The third day that the bar had been closed down, he’d shown up on your doorstep, worry apparent in his features. He hadn’t even been cracking a lot of puns while the three of you sat down, with you and Grillby switched with the explanation of your circumstances to the agitated skeleton. When he’d heard about the aggressive monster, the bright lights in his sockets had snuffed out and you hadn’t been able to suppress a frightened shiver at the clear fury Sans was displaying. Grillby had to pull Sans outside for a while, to explain the details that were still too sore for you to still recall without making an incident.

When they had returned, Sans was relatively more calm, and assured you that such incidents would immediately be put a stop to. With that, he teleported away. You tried not to think too much about the tone of voice he’d been using, while it had been somewhat calm, an undertone made your instincts scream at you that the skeleton had been anything but the adjective. It honestly unnerved you a little.

Nevertheless, after Grillby also returned and you asked about what they had been talking about besides from the attack, he’d just kissed your temple and told you not to worry overmuch about it.

Which you managed to obey, to some degree at the very least.

When the bar had finally opened up again, you’d stayed mostly behind the counter and in the breakroom. Not that you feared your friends, but more like your initial skittishness was making you nervous and you didn’t want to worry anyone else more than they obviously were. Many of your friends within the patrons tried to inquire about if you were well, which you only managed to reply with a forced smile and an awkward shrug to.

You had maybe a couple of days where you didn’t hear a single peep from your boneheaded friend, when you suddenly received a small row of texts from him. The last one was the most apparent.

**From: The Punmaster – 15:41**

**would you and grillby be up for a movienight with the others? they’ve been hard to keep away from the bar and they miss u two**

Huh, so he’d been the reason as to why Undyne hadn’t already hauled you off to chat. It was a relief, but you weren’t sure about interacting with all of your friends at once, they would undoubtedly ask questions that neither you, nor Grillby were ready to answer.

The bar hadn’t been open for long, so there wasn’t a huge load of customers to look after and you decided to ask Grillby about it now when he wasn’t busy.

You casually leaned over the bar, tapping the surface to get his attention. “Sans just asked that we’d go to a movie night with the others, to catch up and stuff. What do you think?” 

As both of you had agreed to minimize the romantic affections in public, more so for you to be more eased into it without having to stress about what was and wasn’t appropriate. But despite that, Grillby seemingly still felt the need to assure you by covering your hand with his, bending down to be on the same eye-level as you. He’d probably heard the slight panic in your voice.

“Are you comfortable with it?”

You pointedly bit your lip as you thought, were you? Maybe. You did want to talk to the others, but feared that they might question you if you showed up. “I-I’m not sure.”

Feeling a pull, you flitted your eyes up to meet Grillby’s. An unknown force made it so irresistible to just lean forward a little further and press a peck onto his mouth, you just barely resisted. Not ready to announce your relationship to the world just yet.

But when he spoke again, you could hear that he was struggling with the same temptation. “…Don’t force yourself.” You didn’t know if he meant the attraction you felt, or the offer from the skeleton.

You decided to reply to the latter. “I don’t think that I am. I’m just. Just a bit nervous if they’ll start asking questions you know…” your free hand fidgeted a little and you had to re-direct your gaze from his because your mind was certainly occupied by more than just worry, and you could feel yourself turn a very bright red.

“Don’t worry, they will respect your trauma from the incident. If not, I’ll be with you.” Ah, that was true, you wouldn’t be alone if you went there. Grillby would most like be glued to your side in case of any breakdowns, he’d assured you of this when he found you shivering and crying that first night after the incident. It had taken most of the darker hours for you to calm down and it was way into the morning when you had stopped quivering.

You nodded, still not meeting his eyes. “…Alright. I’ll text Sans and ask for the day he had in mind.”

The rest of the time that day, you tried to keep yourself busy by cleaning every nook and cranny while texting Sans about the details of the meetup and if you needed to bring anything. He just shot you some dumb puns and just told you that you were sure to ‘lighten the mood’ no matter what you brought.

Suddenly, your phone was very close to being tossed into the garbage. Luckily, no harm came to the poor device as you just decided to shut it off for the remainder of your working hours. It had survived another day.

The hours rolled by and it was blessedly closing time, and since you’d been minimizing the chores during the day, it only took about twenty minutes before both of you were done and ready to go home. As you walked the short distance, you couldn’t help but still tense every time you saw something out of the corner of your vision. Each time, Grillby would squeeze your hand reassuringly and you once again thanked the gods of the fact that the two of you lived a blessedly small distance from the bar.

You quickly discarded your jacket and boots once you entered, wishing for more contact than your thick clothing would permit. As soon as you managed to wrestle off the last stubborn boot, you felt Grillby’s arms wrap around you and as you were going to return the gesture, he effortlessly picked you up to carry you to the couch. Squeaking slightly at his action, you first noticed something that Grillby undoubtedly had felt since the walk home, you were slightly quivering. Argh damn, it had been a week now, couldn’t you just get over your stupid fear?

However, Grillby, as ever patient, just carried you to the couch and sat down so you were positioned in his lap. It was similar to the past situation when he’d just saved you, only this time, you weren’t riddled in scratches and it had now been a week since you realized each other’s affections and you were now able to do what you’d wanted at that point in time. If your stupid body would just stop shaking.

Nevertheless, no matter how much you willed it, it just wouldn’t. But despite the tremble in your hands, you still moved up to place your lips on top of Grillby’s, willing the confirmation that you were very much alive would assure your paranoid subconscious. He returned it, slowly moving his lips against yours and you could feel his hands hesitantly trace your shape underneath the large hoodie you were wearing. It was comforting and somewhat satisfying that you could act out what you’d wanted to at the bar. But by then, your mind popped up a question; how did he even make lips? Moreover, as your ever living curiosity prodded at the question, you felt yourself relent to it. Breaking away, you shyly questioned the origins of his mouth, to which he stilled for a moment, eyeing you oddly and you felt yourself flush at the revelation that it was probably a pretty weird thing to ask.

However, before you could stammer out an apology, he smiled, baring his fangs and responded just as shyly. “…Magic permits me to form anything that I might desire.” Then proceeding to place a chaste kiss to your neck. “Like this.” To which you felt something warm and slightly wet (?) brush up your throat to stop by your jaw. As he pulled back again, you saw an appendage similar to a tongue peek out from between his lips, making him look so adorable that you quickly got over your initial shock from the revelation. Ok, so three facts (because you always know that they have to be in threes).

  1. He had a tongue.
  2. It gave his appearance such an incredibly cutesy look when the tip of it was prodding out between his lips like that.
  3. You wanted very much to try and see what it felt like.



But before you permitted yourself to give in to that final one, you curiously reached up to cup his face, brushing your thumb across his lips. He responded by slightly opening his mouth, teeth visible and tongue resting similarly to how it would with a human. You didn’t dare actually poke your fingers in between his lips, so you were just satisfied with watching, you stuck your own tongue out in concentration.

He poked it out between his teeth and you noticed that it looked cracked, like the flexibility was caused because of this and small flames were flickering across the surface, much like the rest of him. It truly was fascinating.

Now you wanted to feel it.

As you slowly brought your face closer to his, you noticed that his eyes were already closed and you gingerly pressed your lips once again upon his. After a few heartbeats, you finally worked up the courage to part your lips slightly and he complied, brushing his tongue across your lower lip before moving in to tangle with yours. It felt slightly alien, but not much hotter than the rest of him and it presented some sort of wetness that you couldn’t place (obviously because he was made of fire and you’d seen firsthand how that and any sort of liquid was a bad combination) but you didn’t feel like pondering too much about. You were almost straddling him as he shifted slightly beneath you and his hands were still mapping out your form.

You gently prodded his fangs with your tongue, mesmerized by the way he was making your shivers disappear a little more with each caress and you found that instead of fear, a welcome heat was coursing through your veins. While you knew that neither of you were yet ready to go any further than this, the sensation was nice and made you feel loved.

When you pulled away, you were breathing heavily and your lips and tongue felt slightly swollen at the intense stimulation. Seemingly, Grillby was overcome with something similar. You could feel his chest rise and fall as he took large breaths to calm himself down. His face matched yours in the intensity of your blush as his eyes slowly opened to stare at you, his hands had stopped around your hips and you could feel them clench slightly into the fabric to anchor him.

You smiled a little, immensely calm and very happy. “Thanks. For staying with me all the time, it helps me a lot considering all of ‘this’.” You vaguely waved your hand in the air, trying to make your point.

A small chuckle escaped him and he pressed a light kiss to your jaw. “I enjoy it too. Do not doubt that.” which you didn’t, especially not with the way you’d felt him explore your body and the vigor he’d displayed when returning your kiss. There was not a single doubt in your mind you loved him and he returned the sentiment.

However, when would you be ready to announce such to the world?

That, you didn’t want to think about, everything still felt too uneasy, too raw. Neither of you really had any boundaries when it came to the other, you responded too naturally to each other for you to clash. But others. Others were the danger, the variable that might make this relationship hard to carry. When revealed there would be teasing, questions, prejudice and above all, hatred. You loathed the possibility that people would frown about your monster-human relationship, and that feeling of dread just made you just cling to him all the tighter.

Time. You needed time to prepare yourself for any sort of backlash. Between friends, the relationship would only be seen as a positive thing, maybe a ground for a few jokes and knowing stares, they wouldn’t judge. Nevertheless, one slipup would be enough to send the mass against you…

Wow, paranoia really did a number on you easily, huh?

While your mind had gone off on that train of self-decapitating thoughts, Grillby had seemingly sensed that something was worrying you and had made it his duty to make you return to the present. In which, he found a very efficient method. With his teeth slightly grazing the skin of your throat, he was changing between trailing your pulse with his tongue and pressing slight kisses to the exposed tenderness there. When he felt your breath hitch, he knew that he once again had you fully back and promptly pressed another kiss by your collarbone and _sucked_.

Okay he definitely had your attention then and you couldn’t resist letting a ragged gasp escape your mouth. Hands grabbing onto his shoulders, he moved his assault onto a new part of your neck, slowly moving up. Somewhere in your distracted mind you wondered briefly if it would leave a row of visible affections on your poor skin. He finished up near your jaw, applying one last mark before leaning back. You guessed that you looked like a mess by then, hair unruly and all dignity thrown off to a depth where you didn’t know if you could ever recover it. But honestly, you didn’t mind it all that much, if it lead to him sporting a similar disheveled look, as he did now. Like wow.

Considering this, you just leaned forwards to meet his lips one more time, with him already anticipating it and sinking his teeth ever so slightly into your bottom lip, it earned him another sharp intake of breath from your side. He then eagerly proceeded to make sure to mingle your breath with his, as his lips moved to cover yours. It was really fulfilling.

After a few more… intimate minutes. You finally worked up the wills to break away and to help you cool down a little; you rested your head in the crook of Grillby’s neck so that you wouldn’t be tempted to continue your little act. Not that you would have minded it that much, but your pocket had started buzzing with incoming messages and you felt the need to take a long cold shower to make sure that you did not go any further than this for now.

As you took a few moments to catch your breath, Grillby just embraced you, seemingly also needing a moment for reality to fully settle. You obliged him, just relaxing in his arms. Lazily fishing out your phone from your back pocket, you opened it to a row of messages. All of them were from Sans.

**From: The Punmaster – 2:13**

**now that you two are done working do u want to discuss the plans undyne has for how youre gonna confess? she’s real naggy rn**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:17**

**yo bud**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:21**

**plz answer or undyne will notice me texting and her + papyrus are in the livingroom**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:34**

**Yo PUNK! YOU READY TO PRACTICE CONFESSING??**

Heh, Undyne had stolen Sans’ phone, that much was obvious. While the thought of Undyne wrestling with the lazybones was entertaining, you couldn’t help but worry that your secrecy would end up making a tear in your silly friendship with the others if you didn’t tell them soon. Well, that was one issue that you needed to clear up.

You hadn’t noticed that you’d started to frown before Grillby placed a finger on your lips, efficiently gaining your attention. You gave him an apologetic smile, and he removed his finger to give you one last hug before motioning to stand. Obediently removing yourself from his lap, you busied yourself with replying to the obstinate duo.

**To: The Punmaster – 2:41**

**If you guys manage to calm down I might consider it.**

**To: The Punmaster – 2:41**

**…and there might be something on that front that I haven’t told you.**

And there it goes, you readied yourself from the recoil. Maybe they would be able to tell enough just from that single hint, in a way you hoped that wasn’t the case since you wanted to break the news to them yourself. But really, knowing your boneheaded friend, he probably already figured out most of the stuff from between the lines.

You see the flashing of a row of incoming messages, apparent that both Undyne and Sans was texting you.

**From: The Punmaster – 2:46**

**!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!??????**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:46**

**PUNK WE NEED TO HAVE A GIRL SLEEPOVER LIKE ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:47**

**undyne isn’t going to win this she wont be the one to host it**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:48**

**both of were already invited again to the movienight**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:48**

**you aint getting off with just telling us stuff over the phone and undyne+alphys will just join in that night**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:49**

**this sorta news demand face-to-eyesocket**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:50**

**and the movienight will be the perfect place for it**

**From: The Punmaster – 2:50**

**betcha you didn’t _see_ that coming**

Heh, Sans must’ve stolen the phone back from Undyne, or maybe she gave it back after announcing your non-obligatory part of an upcoming sleepover and then joining back with Papyrus. It sounded like something she would do, just to make you unable to decline the proposition.

You sighed and leaned back into the cushions of the couch, realizing that the nice movie night you’d planned with the others, would most likely turn into a full out interrogation. Lovely. Well, at least Grillby would also be there, so you could always hide behind him if Sans got a little too intimidating or if Undyne tried to catch you in a headlock (those hurt!).

Speaking of which, where had he gone?

You ignore your phone for the moment and peek over the back of the couch, trying to locate the firey man. You spot him in the kitchen, cutting up a few apples for a late-night snack. Always thinking ahead. Despite having to go to bed soon-ish, both of you liked to eat a little before getting ready. Speaking of which, why were the skeletons and Undyne awake at this time? It was way past Papyrus’ usual bedtime. You decided to use the question as a way of changing your topic with the bonehead.

**To: The Punmaster – 2:56**

**Hey Sans, how come all of you are still awake?**

A few minutes passed before you got a reply.

**From: The Punmaster – 2:59**

**undyne and paps are trying to do a challenge where they see which one of them can stay awake the longest**

**From: The Punmaster – 3:01**

**paps is p close to falling asleep standing and i want to be there when he does**

Oh, ok. Made sense you supposed. Or it at least sounded like a likely challenge that the pair would try to act out, just to see which one of them would end up the winner. Nevertheless, you didn’t want to receive a continued barrage of questions from your friends, so you just sent Sans a short ‘goodnight’ before turning off your phone.

Standing up, you almost managed to bump into Grillby, who was holding onto two small dishes with each their own cut up apple. You hastily apologized, but as you expected something stern, Grillby just leaned down and placed a kiss of your forehead. Motioning then for you to sit down again, he placed a plate on your lap and sat down beside you to plop the first piece in between his chapped teeth. Following his clue, you munched down on your own, leaning up against his side and relaxing as the fresh taste settled in your mouth.

After eating a couple of pieces, you remembered the addition to your plans with Sans. Tapping Grillby slightly on his thigh, you spoke. “I’m pretty sure that Undyne will also be joining us at the sleepover. She wants to ask about… us.”

He hummed slightly in reply, placing his hand on to of yours and leaning down to nuzzle your hair slightly. Your thick fuzz muffled Grillby’s calm voice. “I don’t mind and do not worry, I am more than capable of fending her off from you if you wish.”

You shook your head at his proposition. “No, it’s alright. Just wanted to warn you if I’m getting dragged off by her and Alphys for some ‘Girl talk’.” you sighed, realizing that it was quite a high possibility.

Grillby just stroked his fingers over your hand reassuringly. After finishing up the remaining pieces of the delicious apples, you stood up to finally take that much-needed shower. It was nice, since you’d been running around doing small chores all day, you were able to wash away the sweat off your body. Drying your hair with the towel, you manage to wriggle your tired body into a large t-shirt and sleepwear-shorts. Slowly making your way into the bedroom, you stop just within the doorframe. Grillby was apparently in the middle of changing, shirt nowhere to be found, only clad in boxers.

Well, it wasn’t like you hadn’t seen him shirtless before. But now, with both your feelings out in the open and with plenty of time to process what that meant, you felt just a bit inclined to just enjoying the view. Man, he really was ripped. Bent forward to dig within the drawers, he fished out a couple of shirts, seemingly indecisive about which one he wanted to wear. You looked down at your own, also one from his collection that you’d been using since the beginning.

When you looked back up, your eyes locked with his, a clear white spreading across his features and you could feel yourself blush slightly in return. You’d been caught staring.

Oh, well.

You hesitantly push yourself away from the doorframe, crossing the distance between the two of you. Gingerly reaching out to pick the shirt you thought looked best, you gave him a shy smile. “I would say this one.” Grillby just stayed silent, not making any movements to take the shirt from your hand. You could feel yourself flush even further and moved to turn away, thinking that you’d probably gone over a line somewhere. But as you turned to leave, Grillby grasped onto your hand.

“S-sorry… I just… please don’t go, it’s alright.” His grip on your wrist was light, easily broken out of it if you still wanted to escape. But you didn’t. Instead, you turned and gave him a slight grin. Feeling a light tug at your wrist, you moved closer, only to find yourself embraced once again. “I still need to completely adjust to the fact that you’re actually here with me…”

Okay, that might’ve been a bit… embarrassing. He still hadn’t put on a shirt, so you were pressed against his (very very hot, like somebody save you) muscular chest. You hesitantly wrapped your arms loosely around his middle, feeling as if you were the one exposed. You could sense the flames flicker across your skin wherever you touched. A small, embarrassed smile tugged at your lips. “It’s not like I haven’t been here for a long time already.”

“Yes, but not like this.” When you looked up at him, he used one free hand to cup your cheek and you could see a giddy smile spread across his face. “Now you’re actually _with_ me. We share the same sentiment.”

Ah, that was true. You hadn’t really known about how he felt, before the confession and you then can’t help but wonder for how long he’d been hiding romantic feelings towards you. You sort of wanted to ask, but decided that he would have to be a little more dressed for the two of you to have that discussion. In truth, you had already spent a lot of willpower to fight yourself resisting the urge to do something that would be largely misunderstood in this situation.

You failed.

Before you realized it, your fingers had gently started tracing the skin up Grillby’s spine. As you did, you could feel a shiver run down his back, flames slightly shifting under your touch. A half-suppressed groan escaped from you companion, and you could feel his hands tighten in the fabric of your shirt. His hands were shaking on your back, and you suddenly felt a little guilty, leading him on like that.

Retracting your offenders, you mumble an apology. “S-sorry Grillby… probably went a bit too far there, heh…” taking a step back, you slowly tried to exit his embrace. But he didn’t budge, hands keeping you still by your hips.

Grillby leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on your forehead, “No need to apologize, it… just caught me slightly off guard, though I still enjoyed it.” His grip on your hips suddenly pulled you forward, and you only managed to squeak as he picked you up. “Now.” You could hear a teasing undertone to his voice. “Let us catch some sleep, you’ll need it in the days to come.”

To which he promptly dumped you unceremoniously on the bed. Letting out a sound in protest at the treatment, you soon relaxed as he joined you under the covers, now with the shirt you’d chosen on. With his hand locked with yours, you soon fell asleep. Your dreams a blur of unintelligible scenes that you wouldn’t be able to recall the upcoming morning, you dozed in the comfortable heat of your lover.

Your heart was at peace.

Well as much as peace could’ve lasted up ‘till the date of the sleepover. The constant barrage of questions from your friends and not-so-hidden hints that they’d already figured out that more than friendship was going on between you and Grillby. Nevertheless, neither of them really seemed to want to be the ones to announce it out loud, and you weren’t comfortable enough to tell them as such over text.

And so, the – somewhat – dreaded date came. Grillby had insisted that he’d be the one carrying the bag you’d both packed with clothes and various other necessary items, to which you really didn’t complain much. Since there was still a chill in the air and you’d stupidly left your gloves at home which resulted in you having to shove your hands deep into the pockets of your jacket as you walked.

To say that you were nervous would have been an understatement. While you loved your friends a whole lot, they did have quite a tendency to poke their noses, or – in Sans’ case – lack of one a bit deeper into your business than you liked. You guessed that it was a general ‘best friends’ thing, when you were technically dating another one of their best friends.

Relationships were weird.

When the two of you finally reached the skele-brothers’ house, you hesitated for a second. But before you had to force yourself to knock, Grillby leaned over your frame and hit his knuckles gently against the wood before taking your hand, right, he was there too. You wouldn’t be alone. You really needed to realize that.

And that thought goes right to hell as Undyne appeared in the doorway and literally _kidnapped_ you. You were on your own this time around; no amount of power from Grillby’s side could possibly stop the raging strength in Undyne when she wanted to gossip. Your surroundings passed by in a blur as you were hoisted up into Undyne’s embrace and carried through the house, she really was strong. You hoped that you’d never have to face the wrong end of that strength.

She efficiently kicked open the door to, huh what a surprise, Papyrus’ room. Dumping you on the edge of the race-car bed that Papyrus had in his room, you needed a moment to asset your surroundings. Though your scaled friend seemingly hadn’t the patience for permitting reality to set, as one yellow eye stared at you as she crouched down in from of you.

“Spill.” It was just one word, one word and she expected you to comply with telling the whole story. Well it worked to some degree.

You fidgeted with your hands, nervously staring back at the monster. “S-shouldn’t we maybe tell the others about this too?”

“Nope!” a large grin spread out on her face. “This is girl-talk. Not a diverse-group-of-others-talk.” A calloused finger pointed at you. “So spill.”

Rubbing some of your hair between your fingers, you thought about how to tell the whole tale. While you’d been thinking a lot about this over the past few days, you still didn’t feel one hundred percent sure about announcing the whole thing. Nevertheless the intimidating monster in front of you expected some context between the vague messages the two of you had been sending back and forth, so you didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

“Alight.” You forced your hand to stop fidgeting, without much luck and just decided to ignore it. “I-I’m together with Grillby now?”

“Uh- Duh.” What? “I figured that out ages ago. What I want to hear are the juicy details, like how did it happen? Was it that night with the aggressive monster?!” oh.

“W-well, yeah.” Backtracking a bit, you told her in broad terms what had happened with the monster that had attacked you, to which she only interrupted once when you started describing the attacks to your soul. “WHAT?!” it took a little while to calm her down after that, with you reassuring her that Grillby had managed to intervene and neutralized the predator. You then continued onwards, but started to falter a little when you reached the more intimate parts of what had happened afterwards.

However, with one impatient look from your audience, you stuttered your way through most of the confession. Right before somebody slammed open the door to the room.

In the doorway, stood Sans and Alphys. Sans looked slightly displeased with Undyne having suddenly the upper hand in the whole situation, as he probably guessed that she’d heard most of your story already. While his guess wasn’t wrong, you actually hadn’t yet managed to tell the full story. Alphys just walked over to Undyne and gave a flicker to one of her girlfriend’s fins, which came as a shock to anybody but Undyne. You’d never expected for the passive Alphys to actually do something like that, but as she stuttered through a scolding of her girlfriend, you figured that she wouldn’t be a pushover if she dated someone as headstrong as Undyne. Apparently, she wasn’t all that happy that Undyne had hogged the storytelling for herself. Oh god, all three of them were in on this.

Flushing a bright red, you just wanted to hide. Your friends had apparently all betted on who’d been the one to first confess, knowing both of you, they’d guessed your feelings a long time ago. Well, everyone but Papyrus it seemed, he hadn’t been included in the snooping group, probably because of his serene sense of right and wrong.

When the initial scolding and annoyance from the two wore away, you found yourself suddenly seated with not only one, but three listeners eager to hear your tale. Somebody please save you.

Stuttering a whole lot, you managed to describe Grillby’s rescue to the others and then stopped, unsure. Should you really disclose this to your friends? Was it too personal? You felt one boney hand press on your shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze as Sans sat beside you on the edge of the bed. “While it’s all nice and dandy to know this, you don’t have to force yourself kid. That’s not how friendship works.”

That made you think for a minute, it sounded similar to what Grillby had said previously. That, while being curious, wouldn’t try to force you to speak if you weren’t comfortable with it. The revelation actually calmed you a great deal, you guessed that while it had been a long time since you’d been homeless, some worry-tard-ish habits still stuck.

Why did you need to worry about the mass finding out that you were dating a monster? You’ve heard multiple stories about it going rather well down as long as it wasn’t just for show and you certainly weren’t only dating Grillby out for the possibility of the recognition you could receive for it. Quite the opposite in fact, you’d been worrying your ass off for the risk that others might pay more attention to you.

Suddenly, it all seemed a little silly. You had friends, a partner and a great situation in general. Maybe worrying over things that you couldn’t control was something you seriously needed to stop doing.

Looking back up into Sans’ eyes, you noticed a patience and openness that you rarely saw from him. Perhaps, just maybe he knew your worries a little. Had he maybe dated a human before? You didn’t want to pry though, so you let it be.

Reaching over to give Sans a quick hug – something you weren’t sure if he was comfortable with but just felt was the right thing – you released him with a relaxed smile on your lips. “Thanks Sans, guess I was a little panicky.”

He just shrugs, “Well no need to be so sternum about it, we will let it be if you’re not cool with it.”

You laugh a little to that, “Yeah well, I think I’m a little better now. I’m actually unsure as to what made me nervous about it all in the first place.” Before you register it, Undyne and Alphys is suddenly hugging you and it’s a lot gentler than some of the other embraces you’ve suffered from the ribbed monster’s side.

“You’re such a nerd!” you were also pretty sure that Undyne was the only one that could make the word ‘nerd’ sound so loving. “I would smooch you if both of us weren’t already taken!” to which Alphys again gave her girlfriend a playful whack on her fin as you all laughed.

When the initial hype calmed down a little, you sat back onto Papyrus’ bed once again and re-told the story. This time, you were a lot less nervous and only tended to stutter or falter when it was about something romantic. Now that you thought about it, Sans had already heard the more detailed version from both of you, though now he also heard what had transpired after the initial battle. Undyne even let out a loud whoop when you reached the actual confession, where Alphys needed you to elaborate the state and position you were in. She said it was for ‘research’ or something the like. You chose not to think about it overmuch.

After the last flushing details had been needled out of you, you received another large hug from the pair whereas Sans just laughed quietly by the sidelines. When they eased up a little he even dared to add; “You know what comes next Undyne.”

Undyne then proceeded to fish out her wallet and hand him a bill. You knew it! They’d been betting on your relationship. Shooting you an apologetic grin that displayed most of her teeth, Undyne elaborated on why she’d lost. “I bet that you’d be the one to first confess, and that it would happen in the apartment. Seems like I lost on both accounts.” That earned her a scowl from your side. You didn’t like how much they’d bet on when it came to the confession.

But oh well, you’d let it slide for now. Rising from your seat on the unexpectedly comfortable bed, you tell the others that you were going to check up on the others, hinting not so indirectly that you wanted to be near Grillby.

They comply and walk outside with you, chatting lightly about the plans for dinner and which movies you all felt like watching, since their main goal for tonight had been accomplished. Hm. Maybe you should be a little less forgiving in the future if they tend to cause such a commotion about gossip and stuff. Eh. Whatever.

Right now you just felt like being together Grillby.

Tottering down the stairs, you found the familiar glow assisting Papyrus in the kitchen, dicing up some veggies and adding them to the pan on the stove. Ohhh. Looked like stir-fry, something that went well with Papyrus’ preferred diet and also ended up with a less destructive result. Undyne then eagerly bounded past you down the last few steps of the stairs and joined the… fry. Pffft ok, Sans must be rubbing off on you a little.

Moving your eyes from the eager reunion in the kitchen, you found yourself walking over to Grillby’s side. Leaning on the edge of the table beside Grillby, you shot him an easy smile as you watched the upcoming turmoil that was called Undyne in the kitchen. “You were right. Though I didn’t see any shining knight coming to my rescue when Undyne dragged off with me.” Well you weren’t really mad about that, just curious as to how easy he’d taken your apparent kidnapping.

That was all you needed to say, because the next moment Grillby’s arms are around you and you hear a wolf-whistle coming from the other side of the kitchen, accompanied by Papyrus’ yell of outrage that you should keep your displays of affection outside of the place where culinary expertise was practiced.

Yeah ok, maybe you wanted to keep this a bit more privately. “Let’s talk in the living-room, hm?” you quietly spoke at your firey partner, and he let out an approving hum though it took a few extra seconds before you were let go.

Also the very moment that the two of you sat back down onto the couch, you felt him pull you close to his side. When he then proceeded to snuggle his head into your hair, you couldn’t resist letting a small giggle out. “What’s up?”

“You.” And his arms pressed against your sides, making you lean further back into his embrace as you flushed a little. “O-oh?”

Grillby’s face was still buried in your hair, leaving a wisp of breath travel over your nape. “While I knew that you would come to no harm in Undyne’s care. It was… hard for me not to be by your side.” you could then feel his lips press against your neck. Oh gosh, were the others looking this way? A quick glance in the direction of the kitchen confirms that surprisingly no-one was stalking on the two of you. Grillby was still speaking, gingerly pressing his lips against the soft skin. “I must look so immature, not able to stand being by myself for long without your presence.”

You could only laugh weakly at that, feeling your breath quicken a little from both the affection and your nerves that any of your companions might see what you were doing. “N-no not at all, b-but maybe this- ah- uhm. Isn’t the best place to do… this.”

“A-ah. Right.” He had seemingly drifted off onto another plane, not really thinking about the very invested group of friends present in the kitchen, just a few steps away. “My apologies, that was… not appropriate.” His face was, however, sill buried in your hair and he seemingly didn’t feel like moving away.

“It’s alright, our friends are just a huge bunch of snoopers. So if they found us like this they’d probably never let us live it out.”

“I don’t particularly care for their thoughts on the matter. But you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable by my actions.” He lessened his hold a little, shifting his position so that you ended up laying in his lap instead. It was actually quite comfortable, while his one hand ran through your tangled strands; the other sneaked down to grasp yours. “You have seen how affectionate Undyne and Alphys can be in public, have you not?”

Well, not really. “Are they that bad?”

A quiet chuckle came from above you. “I would not recommend watching any sort of romantic movie with them, or try to go drinking in public. It has resulted in quite some… intimate situations.”

You snickered. “Duly noted, no romance and no alcohol whatsoever.”

Quieting, the two of you relaxed. Listening to the ruckus coming from the kitchen, you enjoyed just being able to be near each other, as Grillby’s fingers continued to caress your hair. In pure bliss, your eyes voluntarily closed for a minute or two. Just before you realized that you should never let your guard down in this household, by the very loud clamor that suddenly sounded by your feet.

Cranking open your eyes, you noticed that Grillby had stopped his ministrations and had flushed a slight white over the middle of his face. Moving your line of sight, you saw Undyne, Alphys and Papyrus standing by the other end of the couch, with Alphys clutching a phone between her claws. Oh no.

“You didn’t.”

Undyne just grinned broadly at your dismay. “Sure did!” shooting a thumb over her shoulder, she continued to laugh “Dinner’s ready!”

Giving up on everything in your life, you slung the hand that wasn’t occupied holding Grillby’s, over your eyes with a slight whine. “Why did I agree to this?”

You didn’t need to look to see that Undyne’s grin widened. “Because you love us! Come on!”

“Fine, fine.” Though you didn’t immediately follow up on it, enjoying Grillby’s touch just a smidge longer. However, you knew that the inevitable couldn’t be pushed further and motioned to rise from your comfortable position.

Joining you in your journey to the kitchen, Grillby still hadn’t released his hold on your hand and you found that you didn’t mind it all that much either. Nevertheless, you did have to release the grounding touch when eating. It was a light chatter that came from the other residents of the table. Undyne and Alphys were discussing something and loosely dragging you or one of the others into the conversation. Papyrus also started to chatter a bit with Grillby, though it mostly consisted of him speaking and Grillby nodding.

The stir-fry was a little spicy, and you can only give Papyrus and Undyne a half-hearted glare at that, since you hadn’t really been involved in the cooking yourself and thus didn’t really deserve any rights to complain. So you just drank a whole lot of water to cool down your poor taste-buds and in a moment of revelation, actually dumped some ketchup onto your pile of chili noodles. Sans gave you a sidelong grin at that, to which you just stuck your tongue out in return.

When you were mostly done with your plate, you felt a soothing hand rest on your thigh underneath the table. Grillby’s thumb gently moving in small circles and you could feel the heat through the cloth. You then proceeded to gulp down the few scraps on your plate, making it so that your hand could weave together with his underneath the table.

You continued to chat about everything and nothing with the others, discussing a little over what you should try to watch once you’d cleaned up the dishes. It actually end up with being an animated feature film that Papyrus insists is a ‘cultural experience’ though you wouldn’t argue that there was something endearing and sweet about watching “Lilo and Stitch”. The whole cleaning up was a quick process, whereas Undyne and Papyrus proceeded to sprint back and forth from the upstairs rooms to toss mattresses, pillows and blankets down for all of you to lay on.

One pillow actually managed to hit you in the face, making you stumble back and fall, though you were caught by Grillby a short distance before hitting the wooden flooring. From that point onward, you were kept on the couch, where the back covered from the continued onslaught of flying projectiles.

Soon came the time you’d been looking forward the most; actually watching the movie. It’s a lot more relaxing, with you and Grillby on the couch, with the rest placed on the pile on the floor. Cuddled up in a bunch of blankets, you were placed on top of Grillby’s chest with your head nuzzled up underneath his chin.

He emitted a comfortable heat, seemingly enjoying just being this close to you. His hands were resting on your back, drawing small lazy circles that you could feel through the fabric of your shirt. The touches were comforting and you focused more on those rather than the movie playing on the large TV.

Sometime during the movie, you needed to go to the bathroom, whereas Grillby was apparently a little reluctant with releasing you. Nevertheless, nature called and you peeled yourself off from him with a small laugh and a quick smooch to his cheek before sneaking away from the other monsters that were seemingly greatly invested in the adorable movie.

Or so you’d thought.

Because when you returned, Sans was sitting on the couch beside Grillby, apparently chatting to the elemental. Though when he saw you, Sans just shot you a wink and slid back down beside his brother. When you then turned to Grillby to ask whatever that might’ve been, you were met with the sight of Grillby blushing a clear white, trying to hide his face in the palm of his hands.

Somewhat-gracefully, you managed to maneuver through the pile of limbs covering the flooring and plopped down beside your partner. Leaning over, you whispered gently in his ear “What did he say to you?”

Whereas Grillby seemingly hadn’t yet registered your presence, jumped at feeling your breath shiver over his flames and turned around, surprised to already see you there. The close distance between the two of you supposedly set him off even further as a light crackle erupting from his flames. “N-Nothing really.”

“Mhmm.” You didn’t really buy his words, but relented and let it be. It was most likely in either case just some inappropriate comment about your relationship. You’d try and ask him about it again once everyone was asleep and he’d calmed down some.

Snuggling once again, you felt that he still tensed every time you shifted. What in all the tarnations did they tell him? You certainly had a growing curiosity blooming in the back of your mind, as you tried to re-focus on the movie. To which you certainly failed, even though it was quite adorable to see Stitch and Lilo interact with some of the others, something just drew your attention back to your companion. Grillby still looked a little off, and when you’d checked to make sure that none of the others were looking at you, you leant forward to lightly press your lips against his neck.

The very moment that your lips made contact with his skin, Grillby gasped and his hands flew up to wrap around your form. You could feel him slightly quiver under your touch. Man, you really wanted to know what Sans had said that could possibly unravel Grillby to such an extent.

Nevertheless, you decided to let it be. Only pressing another kiss to his neck before moving down and just resting your head onto his chest. You thought that your poor elemental probably already had quite a night, if you were able to guess as much from his mood.

For a moment, you felt his embrace around your middle tighten a little and it expressed enough gratitude that you couldn’t help the small smile from creeping onto your lips.

Dozing for a little, you permitted yourself to catch up a little onto the sleep you’d lost because of the nightmares, just while the more disinteresting things came to pass, since you already knew what was going to happen. Before you realized it, the credits were rolling and the others were eagerly discussing which movie they were going to watch next, minus Sans. He’d apparently mimicked you by falling asleep sometime during the movie, leaning up against his brother and seemingly not bothered by the eager discussion taking place.

But then, just as you zoned out. You caught a movement from the otherwise immobile skeleton, Sans’ eyes were suddenly both open and focused on you. His eyelights flickered shortly over to Grillby and back, then _very slowly,_ he winked at you.

The next moment you blinked, his eyes are closed and none of the others have seemingly noticed any sort of life-signs from the elder skeleton. You had a sudden revelation about what the skeleton might’ve talked to Grillby about and you felt yourself flush a little at the thought. Being a couple, it means a lot more than what you have been doing now, doesn’t it? like, a lot. Oh god.

No don’t think about it; you would give in to Sans’ mind games if you did. The pace in your relationship would go only as fast as either of you were comfortable with.

Yeah, that’s a good thought.

Continuing to snuggle up to Grillby, you snoozed a little more during the second animated movie “Tangled” since it was getting late, whereas your limbs weighed a ton and the gentle heat from Grillby felt like a cozy blanket. Which of course resulted in you being barely conscious through the duration of the movie, and within the small intervals that you actually managed to pry your eyes open, you saw that most of the others were also in similar stages of sleepiness.

Heh, even Grillby seemed to snore as you felt his arms loosen around your waist and when you looked up, his head had tilted to one side and his glasses slipping off a little. Stifling a laugh, you gingerly reached up to peel the worn spectacles off and placed them on the open space in front of the couch, hoping that they wouldn’t disappear sometime during the night.

When you returned your attention back from the procedure, you saw that Grillby was awake. Clear lidded eyes were staring at you, studying you with such tenderness that you couldn’t help but blush.

No words were exchanged, just a comfortable silence between the two of you as time seemingly stilled. Carefully, Grillby raised his hand us to cup your cheek, running his thumb over your skin in a sliver of a touch. You, in return, nuzzled into his palm, reveling in the low crackle and the scent of burn wood and spices that he always carried. The next moment, he turned your head up to look at him as he’d raised himself up onto his elbow and leaned forward towards you. Recuperating the silent gesture, you lifted yourself up a little, just to press your lips gently on top of his.

It was only a short returned show of affection, since neither of you were comfortable with more when your friends were sleeping just a short distance away. A slight smile spread over your lips when you separated, staring into the inferno of Grillby’s flames.

And suddenly, you’re on your side, squished in between the pillows of the couch and Grillby. A surprised squeak managed to escape you at the unexpected motion and you could feel a soundless laugh vibrate through Grillby’s chest as he laid there with you, pressing his forehead against yours and smiling.

Gods, he was beautiful.

And so, apparently before you had noticed it, you’d fallen fully asleep within his arms. Because you woke to the merciless sound of something clattering in the kitchen, and the somewhat distinct sound of somebody taking a picture on their phone. Aw, heck no. It was too early for this sort of confrontation. So in response to the lighthearted snickering, you just burrowed your head against Grillby’s chest, seeking refuge in his larger form.

But sadly, it should not come to pass. As you felt Grillby waking as well, and he was always the polite guest, helping with the breakfast and storing away the remaining mattresses and duvets from your sleepover-kit. Though to your genuine surprise, he didn’t move away once you thought he’d woken up, just pressing his lips to your hair as he spoke in a low voice. “They’ve been at it for a while now.”

Oh shite. They sure were persistent. “Go away Undyne!” you complained, knowing that it was futile.

“Aha, it’s alive! Nah bud, Breakfast is almost ready and we were sent to fetch ya!” you can just hear the sneaky tone, oh she will never let you live this down. Being caught snuggling with Grillby, with photographical evidence to boot that would probably never ever leave her gallery.

Unless you managed to delete it, that is.

Without as much as a hint of warning for the fishy girl, you _lurched_ up from the couch to grab at the device. But without your notice somebody had tucked a blanket of the two of you and your legs tangled up horribly within it, sending you flailing to the carpeted floor. Though a heartbeat before your face met its incoming demise, a strong arm wrapped around your middle, efficiently keeping you from greeting the ground.

Another camera-shutter-sound.

“Undyne!” You snarled out at your snarky friend, readying yourself for another attempt at snatching the phone.

An evil cackle erupted from the monster and she bolted for the stairs, leaving you and Grillby alone in the living-room with the scent of Papyrus’ cooking carrying in the air, sourcing from the kitchen.

Grumbling, you moved to stand up by yourself, though you needed a bit of assistance getting untangled from the blanket that had swept itself around yourself and Grillby. All the while you made small unsatisfied sounds, Grillby was laughing quietly, occasionally giving your hand a squeeze or running it through your hair. Little ways to make your mood better, and he knew that they worked every time.

Sure enough, by the time that you looked somewhat presentable for solid company, your anger and annoyance had subsided, replaced by a nice flair of happiness and calm that you seldom usually felt. It was nice, even with the black-mail that had landed in Undyne’s possession. You would have to think about that later.

For now, you only focused on getting some food into your expecting stomach. Still grumbling slightly, you interlaced your fingers with his, not really caring about the shenanigans of your friends since they’d already gotten more personal pictures than this. Adding to that, you really don’t feel like facing them without your partner, if it had been up to you, you’d exited the home by the first picture. Dang, being nice to a bunch of snoops was pricey.

Eh, you supposed that the slight nosiness wasn’t all that bad. It just showed that they cared about your relationship, in their own roundabout way. It was just the mild annoyance they brought with their actions that peeved you a little.

Feeling a little more comforted by that thought, you rose from the table with a decreased interest in snatching offensive devices. It might also have something to do with the warm hand at the base of your spine, Grillby was seemingly just as craving for a lingering touch as much as you were.

Though when you stood, you noticed that the time was way past noon. Oh shucks, the two of you would have to leave soon. Following your gaze, Grillby apparently also picked up on the time, mumbling something or the other to himself before turning around to tell Sans.

Sans just proceeded to assure the two of you that it was _cool_ with him (even with the sad duet of “Awww’s” stemming from Papyrus and Undyne) and that you could come visit again anytime.

“though I guess i’ll be seeing you tonight anyway.” He ended his little speech with, winking at the two of you and teleporting away. He always had to have the last word, that bonehead.

With a sigh and a stretch of your back, you moved to say goodbye to the others. The moment you turned however, you were tackled to the ground in the most literal sense. Luckily the plus carpet saved your back from being crushed as Papyrus and Undyne had simultaneously wrapped their arms around your frame and pushed you to the ground with the momentum. You couldn’t prevent yourself from letting out a small “Oof!” when you hit the flooring.

“CAN’T YOU STAY A LITTLE LONGER FRIEND?” the pleading in Papyrus’ voice almost made you feel bad. It had been fun hanging with them. So much that it almost felt like you’d known each other for years and not just a few months.

Drawing in a slightly pained breath, you managed to reply. “Sorry Papyrus. We have to go. Grillby needs to stock up on inventory today and I don’t want to leave him to take care of it himself.” Though they didn’t release you right away, you continued to assure the sad skeleton that you would certainly come back to visit and that Undyne could join if she liked. To which she yelled into your ear that she of course would be there, or else you wouldn’t know the salt from the pepper.

Finally managing to coax your way off the floor, you stood to join Grillby at the door where he was having a much more civil conversation with Alphys.

She turned to say goodbye when you neared. “B-Bye you two. I-I-it was really f-fun!” with a dumb smile on your face you then proceeded to bend down to give her a quick hug, gently, so that you didn’t press any boundaries with the timid lizard.

“Same to you Alphys, I’m already looking forward to the next time.” Releasing her, you displayed a broad smile. While it had been a strange sort of sleepover, you felt like you wouldn’t trade it for the world. It had been really fun.

Waving goodbye, you stepped outside, Grillby by your side as you made your way down the sidewalk, hand in hand. Looking up at the clear skies, you reveled in the circumstances that lead you to this point.

The cold alleyway where you first met Grillby. The care he took you under. The encounter with the bonehead and the continued onslaught of friends you made. Falling for Grillby and then having your feelings returned. Loving him and being loved.

Yeah. Walking down the road back to the bar, you reached out to weave your fingers together with Grillby’s. The sensation of your heart being filled to the brim with love, his love. It confirmed it.

You felt like you were never going to be alone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: *Mic drop* 
> 
> Ass: "Yeah I'm sorry if the ending leaves a couple of loose threads hanging, but I never intended for it to be any longer than this. This story actually started out as a handful of excited headcanons written to my friend while being on an exchange to America. Whereas Alice continued to encourage me to write it out with her lovely assistance as an editor in the beginning of the production. It's been one hell of a ride. 6 chapters, with each one about 2000 words longer than the last."
> 
> Ass: "All of this couldn't have continued without the amazing love and support that all of you have shown to me. Seriously, I'm dumbfounded that it even got this popular and I'm sorry that I've had to leave you guys hanging this long, I do hope that this chapter was worth the wait! <3" 
> 
> Ass: "Luckily the next chapter was already written out a long time ago, which of course means that it's smut and will be posted within the next week! So I hope you guys will be hanging around to read it!"
> 
> Ass: *added a little later* "Also, if you want to come scream at me or chat or somthing my tumblr is [here](http://costumebleh.tumblr.com)


	7. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to bond a little more with your favorite sexy elemental.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "So yeah it's smut, fluffy, vanilla smut. Just as promised."

That night you had been the first one to go to bed, nervously laying underneath the blankets and fiddling with your hair. Then you heard Grillby entering the room, closing the door.

You felt the bed dip and tensed. Grillby laid down beside you, gently running his hand up your side murmuring in your ear "you alright?" He felt your strained muscles and started stroking your side, trying to reassure you. You muttered something that sounded ludicrous even to you and flushed.

Hearing a small chuckle, you roll over to press your face into his shirt.  Not wanting him to see your red expression, you felt another laugh vibrating through his chest as you nudged closer, tangling your legs together.

He pressed his face into your hair. Running his fingers through your strands and tracing small patterns on your lower back. With you being tense, it sent small shivers down your back and you couldn't suppress a small gasp from escaping your lips.

"A-uhm Grillby-"

"Hmm?" He stopped to press a small kiss on your forehead. Snuggling close.

"I-uh don't really know?" You didn't know how to tell him that you were still insecure about the whole 'sleeping together' thing. Moreover, it wasn’t going to be the cuddly type of sleeping that the two of you had been doing up till now. In addition, the fact that the two of you would thread on unknown ground scared you a little. Well it wasn't like you hadn't been with anybody before but this felt different. More intimate and genuine, you didn’t want to mess it up.

Grillby scooted a bit backwards, cradling your head in his hands and pressing feather light kisses over your eyelids, cheeks, nose and finally your lips with his own pair of magically contoured ones.

Leaning into the pecks, you felt yourself loosen slightly at the gesture, you knew that he didn't want you to be pressured into doing anything you didn’t like. Of course he would say that, why were you even worried? A small smile crept to your lips and seeing it seemingly pleased him as he pressed a bit more heartily against your lips, glad that you were more comfortable.

Now you also leaned into the kiss, deepening it. Grillby seemingly weren't ready for that, and hesitated a smidge before he slipped his tongue in between your lips. It always felt a little odd, having a heat emitting appendage in your mouth, but you experimentally tried to stroke his with your own, as he explored your mouth. It was a slow and lazy kiss, making your body slowly heat up as you felt his hands press themselves against your body.

Your grip on his shirt tightened as you were left gasping for breath. Sometimes he seemed to forget that you needed to actually need air in your lungs, though when he heard you struggling, he quickly broke away. Blushing a bright white across his face at his forgetfulness, he gave you a few moments to regain your breath before he continued eagerly kissing you.

You were completely blissful when you felt one of his hands fiddle with the hem of your shirt, silently asking for permission. However, when you instinctually stiffened slightly, he quickly removed his hand, moving a bit backwards.

Both of you laid there for a minute, sobering up. Then, you finally cursed yourself for being so twitchy, and leaned in to grasp onto one of his hands, leading it up under your shirt as you kissed him again. When you broke the kiss, Grillby looked questioningly at you when he felt the soft skin of your stomach. You let go of his hand to wrap your arms around his neck.

"Y-you can touch me, it's alright"

With that, Grillby slipped his other hand up to tug at the collar of your shirt, making you neck accessible and started to place kisses along your neckline. You gasped when you suddenly felt his tongue run up your neck to your jawline. Continuing the assault on your neck, you also felt his hand starting to curiously massage the skin on your stomach, making you squirm.

As Grillby moved his hand to your side, you couldn't stop a small giggle from escaping your throat. He stopped his actions to stare strangely at you.

You choke back another laugh as you answered his silent question; "s-sorry, it's just a bit ticklish."

You looked down at his chest, still twitching slightly from his hand resting on your skin, you rubbed your legs against his to distract yourself.

"It's sweet" you shivered and flushed when you heard him whisper it in your ear. "You're _adorable_ " it was weird, to hear the usually silent Grillby continue to whisper flattering words in your ear as he moved to position himself over you. Making you feel protected when enveloped in his heat. You liked it though, it wasn’t dirty talk or anything, but it felt just as effective.

“You’re _so_ beautiful.” It was also really hot (no pun intended). His voice dropping an octave in his need and you felt his warm breath on your skin.

Now that your hands were free from his neck, you covered you face as you felt his hand move further up your stomach, up to your breasts. It's not like they were huge, so you never really slept with a bra, so there were no much obstacles for Grillby to overcome. Nevertheless, before he moved up further, he leaned down to kiss the hands hiding your flushed expression, silently asking you to remove them so that he could see you. You obliged him, if reluctantly.

Seeing him as close as he was, made you squeak, then he pressed his contoured lips to yours and efficiently quieted you. Back arching slightly off the bed as he moved to cup your left breast, gently squeezing it. Gasping into his mouth you feel him run a finger over your nipple. Usually you wouldn’t be this sensitive, but something made even Grillby's slightest touch send sparks of heat throughout your body.

His hand was by then gently rolling your nipple between his fingers. Leaving you subconsciously bucking your hips slightly in need of this whole situation to escalate.

When he removes his fingers to grab your shirt and pull it over your head, you don't even hesitate and raise your hands above your head to make it easier. When it's gone you also grab onto the hem of his nightshirt, intending for it to go as well. Laughing, Grillby obliges and strips, revealing his smoking hot (hah) chest engulfed in flames. Well it was more like a skeleton had built a body around it by shaping flames into a humanoid shape, still hot though.  

With him sitting over you like that, you couldn't resist reaching out to touch him. Making it his turn to shiver in pleasure as you ran your fingertips from the crook of his neck, over his chest, and all the way down to the rim of his pants. You paused there, not wanting to push too far ahead too quickly, but he just kissed your forehead before he also slid those off.

Ah, no boxers. You flushed beet red as you saw his length, stiff enough to stand straight. Apparently, you hadn't been the only one getting hot and bothered during your makeout session.

You hear a small nervous chuckle coming from Grillby, leaning down to cover your neck in kisses and hickeys. Continuing down over your chest, he placed a row of kisses around your chest before he took your nipple in his mouth, massaging your other with his fingers.

You gasp and can't resist shifting a little at his touch, a small moan escaping from your lips. When you realize it, you slap a hand over your mouth in embarrassment. Grillby also seemed to have heard it because he stopped his motions to lift his face from your chest, staring intensely. You had to turn your head away, not being able to handle the pure curiosity and heat in his gaze. Then, you suddenly felt his length press against your stomach as he moved up to remove you hand, assaulting your mouth with a deep kiss that left you dizzy.

"Grillby ah-" you only managed to gasp before his mouth covered yours once more. Not knowing what to do with your hands, you wrapped one around the back of his head to play with the smaller flames there as the other felt down his back. As you lightly rack your fingernails along Grillby's spine, he bucks his hips and small sparks erupts from the marked skin. Well, this was new. As he takes his mouth from your lips you experimentally do it again, and a suppressed groan escapes him. Burying his head in your neck, you can feel him shiver as you continue drawing landscapes onto his back.

Glad that you were pleasuring him, you gave a satisfied smile. Then you got a wicked idea. Something Undyne had once mentioned when she had gotten drunk and chosen you as her victim to listen to her sexual escapades. Slipping the hand on his neck down so that all fingers were aligned, you quickly ran your nails up his back and down his sides. The reaction was precious.

Whole body stiffening, he almost cried into your shoulder at the stimulation, wrapping his arms around your shoulders he shakily tried to relax. Awkwardly you slide your restricted arms up around his chest, murmuring praises in his ear until he stops shivering. When he calmed again, he raised himself on his elbows to shoot you a small intimidating look. Obviously not prepared that you would do something like that.

A giggle bubbled up your throat at his attempt at looking mad, when his complexion were as badly thrown off as it was. "Sorry, sorry I just wanted to see if you liked it." Turning your voice a bit calmer you added "and I guess I was right" eyebrow wiggle.

He looked slightly perplexed at your upfront comment and raised his eyebrows in thought, probably weighing his options before he just settled on nibbling your nose. You almost snort at how sweet he is. Then you feel his other hand sneak down your body to the rim of your shorts, slightly tugging at the strings tying them there. He leaned his weight over onto his side, supporting his upper body on his arm. Placing him beside you instead of over you.

Oh, you realize that he is was asking for your permission to go any further than this. How sweet, you thought that you couldn't fall any deeper for this guy but it seemed like you were wrong. You leaned over to place a quick peck on his lips as you reached down, undoing the knot and grasping onto his hand. Giving it a small squeeze before you let go and let him do his own exploring, hiding your embarrassed self with your hands.

You thought that he would try to test the waters immediately, but it seemed like he wanted to give a little payback from earlier. Instead of breaching from the top, he slid his hand down your thighs, feeling the soft skin when he sneaked his fingers under the leg of your shorts. Teasingly he rubbed the sensitive skin there, making you lose all strength.

You peeked at him between your fingers, wondering about how Grillby reacted to you. The result was enough to make you flush.

Half lidded eyes, and a bright blush covering his face as he curiously felt the more squishy parts of your body. His other hand was propped up under his cheek, giving him a look as if he had all the time in the world. Despite you knowing how deeply he craved you right now, atleast judging by how close his fingers came to brushing over your underwear as well as the still hard length you could feel press against your hip.

Finally, he seemed to give in. Grasping onto the rim of both your shorts and panties, he pulls them down at the same time, revealing you fully. You can feel his hand on your hip, as you have to wriggle them completely off yourself, leaving your entirely bare form underneath his.

You buck your hips slightly when he starts moving again, making his fingers brush your clit and unable to suppress the moan, you impulsively reach down to please him as well. Not wanting only you to be satisfied.

However, when he freezes at this, you quickly pulled your hand away, afraid that you went too far. When you worriedly look up at him again, Grillby has his eyes fixated on your face. Leaning down to kiss you, he rubs his fingers over your labia and down to your wetness, pressing a single finger inside. You can't stop yourself from clenching your thighs together around his hand as he curls his finger in you.

Breaking away from the kiss, he smiled at you murmuring "Let's focus on you for now." When you tried to protest, he silences you with another deep kiss, leaving you unable to do much more than gasp, as he pressed another digit inside you. He seems to have found your sweet spot, rubbing there with his fingertips, applying a little bit of extra heat onto them. While that would be enough to tip you over, he also placed his thumb on your clit to go in small circles. Within a minute you could already see sparks behind your eyelids, moaning into Grillby's mouth. Feeling your climax closing in, you tried to convey it in a jumble of words; he seems to catch onto it, rubbing you harder.

Your orgasm came gradually, making you tip over a little more with each touch, rolling your hips and grasping onto the sheets, you finally spilled completely. Grillby didn't stop rubbing and kissing your neck as you gasped out his name.

"Grillby- p-please! Ah-!"

When came down from your high, he halted his motions, letting you rest for a minute before he asked if you were alright. You smiled and turned to your side to kiss him again, you were comfortable and happy, now you wanted him to feel the same.

Pushing him onto his back, you rolled over onto his chest. Kissing his forehead, leaning back to stare at him, he shoots you a surprised look. He probably thought that you didn't need to do anything tonight, but you felt kind of disappointed that you were letting him do everything.

Nevertheless, you wanted to be sure that he wouldn't mind if you took the lead for now. "Hey, can I try something?" He seems to think over it for a minute before he nods, good, you were worried that he didn't like your initiative.

You smiled "If anything is uncomfortable, stop me, ok?" Another affirming nod and you got to work.

First, you gave him a kiss similar to earlier, moving your tongue just the way you know that he likes. Fiddling with the flames on the back of his head, you broke away from the kiss to wriggle down his body, leaving a row of kisses down to where his navel would be.

Parting his legs to place yourself between them, you noticed that he was staring at you, transfixed. You then reached down to run a finger up his length and his eyes shut, shifting his hips at the touch. You're happy that he likes it and grip onto the base, giving his dick a few experimental pumps, already seeping a slight bit of precum out of the tip. You got an idea. Making sure that your hair was out of the way, you leaned down to press your lips to the tip, licking the slight leak off. While being occupied with slowly pushing his tip into your mouth, you heard him gasp and a hand grasped onto your hair, halting you.

"W-wait!" You stopped, slipping your mouth off from him you looked up. His eyes were still shut, like he didn’t really believe what was happening and were afraid that you would be gone if he tried to open his eyes again. He sat up, his hand still on the back of your head as he slowly opened his eyes again. He actually flushed an even clearer white when he saw you sit there between his legs, how cute.

He said something that you couldn't quite hear, but since you had an idea what it might be, you squeezed his thigh while a wicked smile spread over your lips. "Sorry sweetheart what did you say? I didn't catch that" He looked to the side, obviously embarrassed, and repeats.

"...I want to see you" your hunch was confirmed and you hoisted yourself up to place a heated kiss on his lips, still not able to stop yourself from grinning. When you broke away you gave him the corniest wink you could muster and replied; "Of course you can" before you slowly got back to work.

Rubbing the base, you took the head into your mouth, and pressed your tongue at the leakage. His hand was shakenly running through your loose hair, as you took in the head and inched down his length. You managed to get about halfway down the shaft before you feel it prod the back of your throat. To avoid gagging, pulling up again, you try to run your tongue along his length as you bobbed your head slowly up and down.

After experimentally trying a few different ways of making Grillby turn into a hot mess (ha), you settled with sucking slightly when moving up and pressing your tongue along the front when moving down. Within a few minutes, you could feel his legs slightly tremble under the hand you had hoisted your weight onto, and shallow gasps escaped from his mouth. He was getting close.

Suddenly, his other hand pressed gingerly on the side of your face, urging you to remove your mouth. But you didn't feel like wasting the surge of satisfaction and continued moving, kind of curious as to how he would look when he came in your mouth. When he finally tips over the edge, gasping your name in the sweetest way and whole body shivering. He just barely managed to pull your lips off as a fluorescent liquid squirted out onto your face and into your mouth; it kinda tasted like syrup, sticky and sweet.

It takes him a few moments to realize what he did and hurriedly tries to wipe it off. You didn't mind though, when you're done swallowing what ended up in your mouth, you took the hand that was hastily trying to wipe the liquid off your face and licked off the remaining juices sticking to it.

When you removed your focus from the task and looked back up at Grillby, he was frozen. Woops, seemed like you broke him.

Hoisting yourself up, you pressed a peck to his forehead, aware that a kiss on the lips might not be pleasant for him with his taste in your mouth. When he's still just staring shocked at you, you can't resist laughing. Clutching your sides, you continued to roll over onto your side in a mess of giggles and snorts.

That seemingly snapped him back to reality, shooting a grumpy look at you, and seemingly decides in the same moment to punish you a little bit. Because before you knew it, his hands were on your sides, digging in to tickle you. You gasped and flailed your arms, trying to make him stop, as unwanted giggles escaped your throat. It took a while before he seemed satisfied with your punishment, halting his fierce attack to wrap his arms around you.

You took a few moments to calm down, your face still red and hair a mess, you snuggled up to Grillby. Despite he not being able to sweat, you felt like his scent is stronger than before, you pressed your nose to the nape of his neck, taking in the scent. A mixture of smoke and spices enters your nostrils as you buried your face closer to the crook of his shoulder, reveling in just being near him and the heat he always emitted. 

You didn't get how you could have found his heat too much in the beginning, now it was a comfortable warmth that you would hate to separate from. You almost felt like you could doze off right there and then. But the need you had towards going further kept you from doing so.

Raising your face from his shoulder, you leaned in to press kisses along his neck. In response to this he shuddered and clenched a bit harder, clearly telling you that he was enjoying it as you eagerly continued.

Moving a bit further up, you assaulted his mouth with another heated kiss, which he returned with just as much vigor. His hands moved from your sides up to cup your face, making it easier to angle your head. It was nicely slow paced while the two of you had to recover from earlier. Your hands soon started to feel around his sides and back, marveling in -what felt like muscles, moving under the flames.

Moving further down, you traced the dip of his back. Whereas you reached down to give his buttocks a light squeeze, earning you a chuckle from Grillby. The kisses where then light, more brushes of your lips against each other as you panted for breath. You felt the familiar pool of heat, not yet strong, but enough to tell that you felt ready for another round. Wondering if he was the same you led one of your hands to his front, confirming that he was half-hard again. You lightly stroked his length with your hand, earning you a groan of pleasure from your partner.

When you'd worked him into his full hardness again, you stopped, allowing him to regain his composure. As he did, he reached over to grab something off the night table. It was a bottle of lube. Ah, good thinking, he was quite big and he most likely didn't want to risk hurting you because of poor preparation. As he held the small bottle in his hand, he moved so that you were on your back with him placed between your legs.

Squeezing some of the lube onto his fingers, he slipped them in slowly, letting first two and then three of them curl inside you to make sure that you were slick and relaxed. It felt great, he was once again applying heat onto all the right spots that made your toes curl in ecstasy and you couldn't resist moaning out his name when he made you turn limbless like this.

When he pulled out, Grillby wrapped one arm around your back while the other went under your hip. Hoisting you up a bit so that it was more comfortable for both of you. You were admiring the view when he spoke again.

"Ready?"

You nodded, biting your lip in anticipation. Rubbing his length against your slit for a moment, Grillby positioned himself and pressed his tip and the first bit of him into you in one lazy stroke. The pressure was a bit more than you were ready for and left you breathless as he slowly thrust himself further into you. Scrabbling for some kind of anchor in the middle of the rush of mixed sensations of pain and pleasure, you dug your fingers in around his shoulders, nails leaving hot trails on his skin.

He stilled for a moment, leaving you whimpering as you felt his thickness pulse inside of you. The heat so intense that you felt like you were melting under his care. Grasping onto your free hand, he kissed your palm before pinning it to the bed as he resumed his movements, and you noticed that he was going a bit harder than before. When he's finally all the way in, he pauses for a moment to kiss you. Making sure that he hadn't gone too quick.

"...You alright?"

"...Yeah." you breathlessly replied, sure that you looked like a complete mess when he's unraveled you like this. "Keep going." you wished him not only to expose you, you wanted him to take you apart in his arms.

And he obliged. Slowly pulling out and pushing in, he soon fastened his pace, finding a rhythm. Oh god it felt amazing, a bit tight in the beginning but soon your body got somewhat used to his size. Each thrust sending bolts of pleasure up your spine, you gasped and moaned as he continued to fill you. Your hips soon started to buck up to meet his in a silent request for him to go faster, as he did he also started falling apart, as moans and sweet whispers of your name began to spill from his lips.

His pace started to get uneven, but he didn’t permit himself any release before you’d also hit your peak. Suddenly, you felt yourself being hoisted up by Grillby to a vertical position as his hips thrust deeply into you. You were now straddling him, his arms supporting your back and hip, as he kept moving, it was a better angle for you, piling up the pleasure you also started to move down to meet his base as he kept hitting that sweet spot.

As you wrapped your arms around his chest and neck, leaning down to sink your teeth into his shoulder, a deep moan escaped him. One of his hands moved down to rub at your clit, the heat almost unbearable. Within moments, your mind turned blank and you clenched around him as you hit your second peak that night, pleasure numbing all of your senses.

You whimpered out his name as you came, and he soon followed you. Entire body stiffening, he quickly crashed your lips together as he moaned; tongue uncoordinatedly mingling with yours and you felt him missing your mouth a few times.

He managed to pull out of you, just before the same syrupy liquid was released, leaving a sticky trail up your stomach. It was hot and you felt a little guilty that the sight of his come all over you actually made you a little aroused.

Grillby took a few moments to gather himself, he seemingly also felt as overwhelmed as you had. The session had been fairly vanilla, but the pure intensity had been enough to leave you breathing hard and your mind fuzzy, after it was over.

Once both of you calmed down a little, you felt Grillby’s arms wrap around you in a close embrace. You were tilted backwards back onto the bed as he thoroughly kissed you. Before you realized it, he’d pressed himself flush against you and you could feel the stickiness between the two of you. Gently pushing him off, he looks confusedly down at you before you gesture to the smeared substance, now rubbed onto both of you. He flushed a bright white at his forgetfulness, covering the bottom of his face with one hand as he rolled off you and went into the bathroom to get a damp towel, you couldn’t resist giggling a little. He was so cute.

Returning with the dampened piece of cloth, he slowly sat down by you, silently asking if you’d let him take care of you. Smiling assuringly at him, you permitted him do whatever he wanted. He then proceeded to rub the warm towel over the offended area. It felt really nice and you didn’t mind not moving, especially with the dull throbbing between your legs that you knew with certainty would be sore tomorrow.

However, you didn’t find the price all that high for the pleasure and proximity with your lover. As Grillby finished up cleaning and disposed of the towel by tossing it somewhere near the door, hah, maybe he was also done moving around for today.

As he laid down beside you, you just settled with snuggling closer to him and covering him with the same blanket you laid underneath, even if he gave off plenty of heat to keep you warm throughout the night. It was just cozier underneath the thin fabric; you couldn’t describe it.

Nuzzling into the crook of his neck, you were curious about something, it had come to you before when he’d seemingly been so sure about what he was doing.

“Grillby?” You received a hum as a confirmation that he hadn’t drifted off yet. “Where did you learn uhm… All of this?” You use the hand that wasn’t trapped underneath him to broadly gesture down your body.

He just mumbled a vague round of words that you didn’t quite catch onto, though you unmistakably heard something about ‘research’ and ‘Sans’, which made you smile. You hadn’t been sure if he already knew from previous experiences or if he needed some hinters as to what he should do. In either case, you found it a teensy bit funny that it was Sans who gave Grillby some advice as to how humans went about it.

You were definitely going to use that information later.

Though then, you were so thoroughly exhausted and Grillby’s comforting heat was lulling you to sleep. Your eyes finally shut, just as you felt Grillby pressing a kiss to your forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ass: "So yeah! it's nothing really naughty or anything, but I just thought that it might be sweet like this." *does jazzy hands*
> 
> Ass: "Anyways! Hope you guys liked it and thank you all so much for following the story this far!!! I've read each and every single comment and I love you guys so much <3" 
> 
> Ass: "Again since this is the end of this story, if any of ya'll wanna talk or anything my tumblr is [here](http://costumebleh.tumblr.com/)


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